title: Correlation between metallothionein (MT) expression and selected prognostic factors in ductal breast cancers.
abstract: Our study aimed at examining significance of metallothionein (MT) expression in ductal breast cancers by determination of a relationship between expression of MT protein (MT-1/2) and selected prognostic factors, including grade of histological differentiation (G), expression of Ki-67 proliferative antigen, expression of estrogen receptors (ER) and progesterone receptors (PgR) and expression of HER-2 receptor. Material for the studies involved 54 samples of invasive ductal breast cancer, manifesting malignancy grades of G1-G3. In paraffin sections of examined tumours immunohistochemical reactions were performed using specific antibodies directed to MT, Ki-67, ER, PgR or HER-2. Intensity of MT-specific immunohistochemical reactions was measured using the semiquantitative IRS scale of Remmele. Intensity of colour reactions targeted at Ki-67, ER, PgR was evaluated scoring proportions of positive cells, while HER-2-specific reactions were evaluated in the scale of 0-3 points. The lowest level of MT expression was detected in breast cancer cases of G1 malignancy grade (G1 vs G3 p=0.020). A positive correlation between MT and Ki-67 antigen expression (r=0.32, p=0.019) was disclosed. Moreover, MT expression exhibited negative correlations with expression of ER (r=-0.35, p=0.008) and PgR (r=-0.27, p=0.046). No relationships could be detected between expression of MT and expression of HER-2 (r=0.12, p=0.37). The obtained results suggest that MT expression might be helpful in prognostic evaluation of ductal breast cancers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Histology and Embryology, Wroclaw Medical University, Wroclaw, Poland. agom@hist.am.wroc.pl
authors.forename: Agnieszka
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gomulkiewicz
authors.forename: Marzena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Podhorska-Okolow
authors.forename: Rafal
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Szulc
authors.forename: Zbigniew
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Smorag
authors.forename: Andrzej
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wojnar
authors.forename: Maciej
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zabel
authors.forename: Piotr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dziegiel
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D018270:Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008668:Metallothionein / Q000378:metabolism*; D011379:Prognosis
chemical_list: D008668:Metallothionein