BREAST CANCER

CK2 enzyme is up regulated in several cancers. It has many substratesincluding survivin which is up regulated in cancers. Objectives: To find out the correlationbetween expression of CK2α and survivin and evaluate it as a prospective prognostic marker inpathogenesis of the breast cancer and to find if positive correlation between CK2 and survivinwas associated with advancing disease. Study Design: Cross Sectional Analytical type of study.Setting: Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Army Medical College, Rawalpindiand Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Rawalpindi. Duration of study: January 2013-December 2014. Methods: The research protocol was approved by Armed Forces Institute ofPathology Ethical Committee. Paraffin embedded tissue sections of diagnosed breast cancer,obtained from AFIP, were used. Immunohistochemistry was performed to determine nuclearand cytoplasm expression of survivin, and CK2 .Scoring done by three histopathologists,independently. Results: Total CK2 expression was high in invasive as compared to noninvasivecases (p =0.209). Cytoplasm and nuclear localization of CK2 in invasive group was alittle higher too (p = 0.092) and (p=0.286) respectively. Total survivin expression was high ininvasive as compared to non-invasive cases (p= 0.449). Cytoplasm and nuclear localizationof survivin in invasive group was higher as compared to noninvasive group with no significantdifferent (p=0.472) and (p=0.367) respectively. A positive and strong correlation was found inCK2 and survivin expression and localization in both non-invasive as well as invasive groups.Conclusion: CK2 and survivin correlation in cancers can be used in predicting the cancerphenotype and aggression at early stages.