title: Dysregulated expression of Slug, vimentin, and E-cadherin correlates with poor clinical outcome in patients with basal-like breast cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Among the different types of breast cancer, basal-like breast cancer (BLBC) has an extremely poor prognosis due to its high rate of recurrence and metastasis. The present study aimed to investigate the correlation between the expression of Slug, E-cadherin, and vimentin, and the clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of patients with BLBC. We further inferred from these findings whether Slug leads to a poor prognosis in patients with BLBC through epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT).
  
  
  METHODS
  Immunohistochemistry was performed for 441 patients with breast cancer to determine the expression levels of Slug, E-cadherin, and vimentin. The correlation between protein expression and clinicopathological characteristics of patients with BLBC was evaluated, and these patients were followed up to determine survival rate.
  
  
  RESULTS
  High Slug and low E-cadherin expression in BLBC patients closely correlated with histological grade, lymph node metastasis, tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage, and lymphatic vessel metastasis. Survival analysis revealed that the poor prognosis of BLBC is associated with TNM stage, high Slug and vimentin expression, and low E-cadherin levels.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  High Slug expression is closely correlated with poor prognosis in patients with BLBC. We speculate that this may be attributed to the involvement of Slug in the EMT of BLBC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Breast Surgery, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China.
authors.forename: Tong
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Xianyu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shang
authors.forename: Youxue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Bingshu
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Niu
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Da
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality; D015820:Cadherins / Q000378:metabolism*; D018270:Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011379:Prognosis; D000071250:Snail Family Transcription Factors; D016019:Survival Analysis; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000378:metabolism*; D014746:Vimentin / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D015820:Cadherins; C000604407:SNAI1 protein, human; D000071250:Snail Family Transcription Factors; D014157:Transcription Factors; D014746:Vimentin