title: SLP-2 overexpression could serve as a prognostic factor in node positive and HER2 negative breast cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study aimed to evaluate the utility as a prognostic factor of SLP-2 on the outcome of breast cancer patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  We performed immunohistochemical analysis to examine the SLP-2 expression in a large panel of invasive breast cancer samples.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 496 samples, 261 showed overexpression of SLP-2. Importantly, there were significant associations between SLP-2 overexpression and tumour size (p = 0.002), lymph node/distant metastases, clinical stage (p < 0.001), HER2/neu expression (p = 0.003). In addition, there were obvious differences in levels of SLP-2 expression within four molecular subtypes of breast cancer (p = 0.011). High level SLP-2 expression was shown in tumour samples of HER2 and luminal B subtypes, and low level SLP-2 expression was shown in luminal A and triple negative subtypes, suggesting that overexpression of SLP-2 was closely correlated with HER2/neu expression, and that both SLP-2 and HER2/neu can play a role in lymph node/distant metastases of breast cancers. Thus lymph node status, HER2/neu and SLP-2 high-level expression can act as independent prognostic factors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is an obvious link between SLP-2 and HER2/neu expression. Overexpression of SLP-2 is associated with poorer total survival, especially in lymph node positive coupled with HER2/neu negative patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, State Key Laboratory of Breast Cancer Research, Tianjin.
authors.forename: Wenfeng
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Yanxue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Zhihua
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Baocun
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sun
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D001798:Blood Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D017404:In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis / Q000473:pathology*; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D060787:Neoplasm Grading; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000096:biosynthesis; D046888:Tissue Array Analysis
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D001798:Blood Proteins; D008565:Membrane Proteins; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; C406287:STOML2 protein, human; C508053:ERBB2 protein, human