Open AccessSMAD4 expression in breast ductal carcinoma correlates with prognosis
Author(s) -
Nannan Liu,
Chaoqin Yu,
Yue Shi,
Jing Jiang,
Yuhe Liu
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
oncology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.766
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1792-1082
pISSN - 1792-1074
DOI - 10.3892/ol.2015.3442
Subject(s) - immunohistochemistry , ductal carcinoma , proportional hazards model , breast cancer , breast carcinoma , oncogene , medicine , carcinoma , pathology , biopsy , oncology , cancer , cell cycle
The present study examined SMAD4 expression in fine-needle aspiration cell blocks from patients with breast ductal carcinoma, in order to assess its viability as a prognostic marker. Using immunohistochemistry, the SMAD4 protein status of 86 breast ductal carcinoma fine-needle biopsies, from patients who underwent tumor resection at Beihua University Affiliated Hospital (Jilin, China) between 2002 and 2008, was characterized. The association between SMAD4 expression and clinicopathological parameters, as well as prognosis was assessed using the Mantel-Haenszel method and Cox proportional hazards regression. SMAD4 staining was observed in the cytoplasm and nucleus, and its expression was found to be decreased in ductal breast carcinoma as compared with adjacent normal breast epithelia. Patients with reduced SMAD4 expression levels tended to exhibit more poorly differentiated tumors, a higher risk of recurrence and shorter overall survival. These results demonstrated that the evaluation of SMAD4 protein status in fine-needle biopsy specimens of breast ductal carcinoma may provide additional prognostic information.