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Effect of different ERK2 protein localizations on prognosis of patients with invasive breast carcinoma
Author(s) -
NAKOPOULOU L.,
MYLONA E.,
RAFAILIDIS P.,
ALEXANDROU P.,
GIANNOPOULOU I.,
KERAMOPOULOS A.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
apmis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.909
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1600-0463
pISSN - 0903-4641
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0463.2005.apm_236.x
Subject(s) - immunohistochemistry , cytoplasm , kinase , breast cancer , cancer research , subcellular localization , breast carcinoma , carcinoma , protein kinase a , pathogenesis , medicine , biology , pathology , cancer , phosphorylation , oncology , microbiology and biotechnology
Mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAP kinase) pathways represent a cascade of phosphorylation events, including three pivotal kinases, Raf, MEK and ERK1/2, which have been implicated in the pathogenesis of cancer. We examined 151 cases of invasive breast carcinoma by immunohistochemistry and compared the ERK2 expression with clinicopathological parameters, MMP‐11 immunoexpression and patients' survival. ERK2 immunoexpression was detected in the cytoplasm and nucleus of cancer cells in 37.7% and 19.2% of cases, respectively. Nuclear ERK2 was inversely correlated with ER (p=0.039), whereas cytoplasmic ERK2 was positively correlated with MMP‐11 in fibroblasts (p=0.032) and more often expressed in lobular than ductal carcinomas (p=0.026). Nuclear ERK2 expression was found to be an independent prognostic factor of shortened overall survival of patients (p=0.040), while cytoplasmic ERK2 had an independent, favorable effect on both disease‐free and overall survival (p<0.0001 and p=0.002, respectively). These findings suggest that the different subcellular localizations of ERK2 seem to be related to different, possibly contradictory, effects on patient survival.