title: Prognostic value of signal transducers and activators of transcription 3 in breast cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Constitutively activated signal transducers and activators of transcription (STAT) proteins are found in various types of tumors. However, there is still very limited information about the role of STATs in breast cancer. The power of tissue microarray technique is the capability of doing a series of analyses of thousands specimens in a parallel fashion with minimal damage to the origin blocks. This study was designed with the application of tissue microarray to analyze the STAT3 status in breast cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  Archival tissue specimens from 102 patients with primary invasive breast cancer were selected, and STAT3 expression was analyzed by immunohistochemical staining with tissue microarray. The data of primary tumor staging, age, estrogen receptor status, lymph node status, histologic grading, and tumor-node-metastasis staging were also collected.
  
  
  RESULTS
  By multivariate analysis, the STAT3 expression turned out to be significantly related to the overall 5-year survival rate (P = 0.024).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Immunohistochemical staining with tissue microarray was convenient and feasible for the analysis of STAT3 expression status in breast cancer. Our preliminary results are promising and deserve further evaluation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical Center, Kaohsiung Hsien, Taiwan. smsheen@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Shyr-Ming
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Sheen-Chen
authors.forename: Chao-Cheng
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Rei-Ping
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Fong-Fu
authors.initials: FF
authors.lastname: Chou
authors.forename: Hock-Liew
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Eng