title: Clinical implications for nestin protein expression in breast cancer.
abstract: Recently, it was observed that nestin is preferentially expressed in basal/myoepithelial cells of the mammary gland, and that this intermediate filament may be used as a myoepithelial marker. However, the clinical and prognostic implications of nestin as a marker for breast cancer are still unclear. We examined mastectomy specimens from 150 breast cancers and matching, adjacent non-cancerous tissues using immunohistochemistry and western blotting. Overall, triple-negative breast cancers - that is, breast cancers that do not express estrogen receptors (ER), progesterone receptors (PR), or human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2/neu) - had higher expression rates for nestin than the other breast cancers (57.14%vs 9.30%; P < 0.001). In triple-negative breast cancers, significantly increased nestin expression rates were observed in patients with lymph node metastasis compared with those without node metastasis (25.00%vs 76.92%; P = 0.032). A similar phenomenon was observed for invasive ductal carcinomas compared with ductal carcinoma in situ (16.67%vs 73.33%; P = 0.046). Nestin expression was also found to be significantly related to ER, PR, and P53 expression (P < 0.05). Nestin expression was associated with both shorter breast cancer-specific survival and poor relapse-free survival in the lymph node-positive group (P = 0.028 and P = 0.012 respectively). After Cox regression was carried out, nestin was not shown to be an independent prognostic factor for breast cancer. These findings substantiate the possibility of using nestin as a marker for triple-negative breast cancer. Triple-negative breast cancer progression is associated with nestin; however, the underlying mechanisms of this relationship require further investigation.
authors.affiliation: Breast Surgery, Department of Surgical Oncology, General Surgery, First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, Liaoning, China.
authors.forename: Caigang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Ruishan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Fan
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.forename: Huimian
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D007381:Intermediate Filament Proteins / Q000032:analysis*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000032:analysis*; D064231:Nestin; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000032:analysis; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D007381:Intermediate Filament Proteins; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D064231:Nestin; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen; C577484:NES protein, human; C508053:ERBB2 protein, human