Association of maspin expression with the high histological grade and lymphocyte-rich stroma in early-stage breast cancer.
OBJECTIVE
Maspin is a recently described member of the serpin family or protease inhibitors that is known to be a tumour suppressor gene product. Loss of maspin expression has been found in most breast cancer cases and is correlated with cell motility and tumour invasiveness. However, its precise role in human breast cancer remains to be discovered. We aimed to evaluate the role of maspin in early-stage breast cancer.


RESULTS
We analysed the expression of maspin in 192 stage I and II primary breast cancers by immunohistochemistry. Of these cases, 34.4% showed maspin expression. Maspin expression was more frequently found in invasive ductal carcinoma (36.4%) than in invasive lobular carcinoma (7.1%). High maspin expression was demonstrated in breast cancers showing high histological grade or lymphocyte-rich stroma (P < 0.05). Maspin expression was not associated with overall and disease-free survival rate of breast cancer.


CONCLUSIONS
The results indicate that different biological mechanisms may be responsible for maspin expression in histologically distinct types of breast cancer. Our survey suggests that maspin expression in breast cancer might have a compensatory role rather than prognostic one.
Kim
D H
DH
Departments of Pathology and General Surgery, College of Medicine, Hallym University, Seoul, Korea. esnam@hallym.or.kr
Yoon
D S
DS
Dooley
W C
WC
Nam
E S
ES
Ryu
J W
JW
Jung
K C
KC
Park
H R
HR
Sohn
J H
JH
Shin
H S
HS
Park
Y E
YE
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism; D001940:Breast / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D002285:Carcinoma, Intraductal, Noninfiltrating / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D018275:Carcinoma, Lobular / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D002452:Cell Count; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D016147:Genes, Tumor Suppressor; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011506:Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D015842:Serine Proteinase Inhibitors / Q000378:metabolism*; D015843:Serpins / Q000378:metabolism*; D017154:Stromal Cells / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D015996:Survival Rate
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D011506:Proteins; C085344:SERPIN-B5; D015842:Serine Proteinase Inhibitors; D015843:Serpins