title: Bcl-2 gene expression in human breast cancers in iran.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Breast cancer is among the five most common cancers and ranks first among cancers diagnosed in Iranian women. Screening and treatment of this disease with molecular methods, especially regarding high incidences at early age and advanced stage, is essential. Several genes with altered expression have been identified by cDNA microarray studies in breast cancer, with the Bcl-2 gene indicated as a likely candidate. In this study, we studied Bcl-2 gene expression levels in parallel tumor and non-tumor breast tissues.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty samples including 21 tumor, 16 non tumor (marginal) and 3 benign breast tissues which were all pathologically diagnosed, were subjected to RNA extraction and polyA RT-PCR with the expression level of Bcl-2 quantified using real-time PCR.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There is higher expression levels of the Bcl-2 gene in tumor samples compared with marginal samples, but not attaining significance(p>0.05). Bcl-2 expression in 14 (66.7%) of the cases of tumor samples and 9 (56.3%) cases of the marginal samples were positive. Comparison of the expression of the Bcl-2 gene in histological grade showed that a high expression of Bcl-2 was associated with a high histological grade (p<0.41).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our data suggests that dysregulated Bcl-2 gene expression is potentially involved in the pathogenesis of breast cancer. Using gene expression analysis may significantly improve our ability for screening cancer patients and will prove a powerful tool in the diagnosis and prognostic evaluation of the disease whilst aiding the cooperative group trials in the Bcl-2 based therapy project.
authors.affiliation: Biotechnology Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
authors.forename: Leila
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rostamizadeh
authors.forename: Ashraf
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fakhrjou
authors.forename: Vahid
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Montazeri
authors.forename: Mehrdad Asghari
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Estiar
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Naghavi-Behzad
authors.forename: Somayyeh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hosseini
authors.forename: Masoud
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sakhinia
authors.forename: Ebrahim
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sakhinia
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D018270:Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast / Q000235:genetics* / Q000556:secondary; D002285:Carcinoma, Intraductal, Noninfiltrating / Q000235:genetics* / Q000556:secondary; D018275:Carcinoma, Lobular / Q000235:genetics* / Q000556:secondary; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran; D008875:Middle Aged; D060787:Neoplasm Grading; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D011379:Prognosis; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 / Q000235:genetics*; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2