title: Role of nuclear factor-κB in female breast cancer: a study in Indian patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) is a super family of transcription factors which plays important roles in development and progression of cancer. The present investigation concerns NF-κB /p65 activity in human breast cancers with overexpression of ER, PR, HER-2/neu, as well as the significance of p65 expression with regard to menopausal status, stage, grade, tumor size, nodal status, and NPI of invasive ductal carcinomas in Eastern India.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this hospital based study 57 breast cancer patients attending a Breast Clinic of a reputed institute of Eastern India were assessed for p65 protein expression in breast tumor tissue samples by Western blotting. ER, PR and HER-2/neu expression was determined by immunohistochemistry.
  
  
  RESULTS
  NF-κB/p65 was significantly associated with advanced stage, large tumor size (≥5 cm), high grade, negative ER, negative PR, and positive HER-2/neu. High NF-κB/p65 expression was more frequent in patients with a high NPI (NPI≥5.4, 84.6%) compared with low NPI (<5.4, 44.4%) and this association was statistically significant (p=0.002).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  NF-κB/p65 overexpression was associated with advanced stage, large tumor size, high grade, and high NPI which are poor prognostic factors linked to enhanced aggressiveness of the disease. NF-κB/p65 expression implies aggressive biological behavior of breast cancer and this study validates significant association of NF-κB /p65 overexpression with negative estrogen and progesterone receptor status and overexpression of HER-2/neu oncoprotein. In our good clinical practice, patients with NF-κB positive tumors need to be treated aggressively.
authors: Comprehensive Breast Service and Breast Cancer Research Unit, Breast Service, Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (IPGME and R) and Seth Sukhlal Karnani Memorial Hospital (SSKM) Kolkata, India. debarshijana@yahoo.in
authors: Debarshi
authors: D
authors: Jana
authors: Soumen
authors: S
authors: Das
authors: Diptendra Kumar
authors: DK
authors: Sarkar
authors: Syamsundar
authors: S
authors: Mandal
authors: Abhiram
authors: A
authors: Maji
authors: Madhumita
authors: M
authors: Mukhopadhyay
mesh_terms: D000236:Adenoma / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism*; D015153:Blotting, Western; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D018270:Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D007194:India; D016328:NF-kappa B / Q000378:metabolism*; D060787:Neoplasm Grading; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000378:metabolism; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen / Q000378:metabolism; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D016328:NF-kappa B; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone