title: Levels of expression of endothelial markers specific to tumour-associated endothelial cells and their correlation with prognosis in patients with breast cancer.
abstract: Tumour endothelial markers (TEMs) are a newly discovered family of endothelial markers associated with tumour specific angiogenesis. This study sought to examine the levels of expression for TEMs in human breast cancer. Breast cancer tissues (n = 120) together with normal background tissues (n = 33) were obtained after surgery. RNA was extracted from frozen sections for gene amplification. The expression of TEMs was assessed using RT-PCR and the quantity of their transcripts was determined using real-time-quantitative PCR (Q-RT-PCR). TEM-7R (P = 0.05) and TEM-8 (P < 0.01) were significantly raised in breast cancer tissues compared with the levels detected in normal background tissues. After a median follow-up of 72.2 months it was found that patients who had recurrent disease and/or who had died from breast cancer had a significantly (P < 0.05) elevated level of TEM-1 compared to those patients who were disease free. In addition, elevated levels of TEM-4, TEM-5, TEM-6, TEM-7 and TEM-7R were also raised in breast cancer tissues. Patients who had developed nodal involvement exhibited significantly (P < 0.05) high levels of TEM-1 and TEM-7R compared to patients who were node negative. Furthermore, the levels of TEMs did not correlate with tumour or histological grade. We conclude that elevated levels of TEM-1, TEM-7R and TEM-8 (but not TEM-2, 4, 5, 6 and 7) are associated with either nodal involvement, and/or disease progression, and may therefore, have a prognostic value in breast cancer.
authors.affiliation: Metastasis Research Group, University Department of Surgery, University of Wales College of Medicine, Cardiff, UK. daviesg11@cf.ac.uk
authors.forename: Gaynor
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Davies
authors.forename: Giles H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Cunnick
authors.forename: Robert E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Mansel
authors.forename: Malcolm D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Mason
authors.forename: Wen G
authors.initials: WG
authors.lastname: Jiang
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000473:pathology; D017931:DNA Primers; D004730:Endothelium, Vascular / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D011379:Prognosis; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D017931:DNA Primers