title: Decreased HCRP1 expression is associated with poor prognosis in breast cancer patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Downregulation of hepatocellular carcinoma related protein 1 (HCRP1) has been reported to be associated with a poor prognosis in a variety of malignant tumors. The purpose of this study was to assess HCRP1 expression in breast cancer and to examine its possible correlation with commonly used prognostic factors, particularly epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR).
  
  
  METHODS
  Immunohistochemical analysis was performed on tumors from 194 patients with primary breast cancer. HCRP1 expression was analyzed along with major clinicopathological variables.
  
  
  RESULTS
  HCRP1 protein expression was shown to be correlated with age (P = 0.001), histological grade (P = 0.005), tumor progression (P = 0.013), and death (P = 0.001), but not with tumor size, lymph-node metastasis, or Ki67 status. Kaplan-Meier survival curves showed that lower HCRP1 expression was significantly correlated with increased short-term survival (P < 0.001), and both univariate and multivariate analyses revealed that HCRP1, tumor size, lymph-node metastasis, and human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER-2) were independent prognostic factors (all P < 0.05). In addition, low HCRP1 expression was much more frequent in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC; 63.89%) than in luminal (16.95%) and HER-2 overexpression phenotypes (7.5%; P < 0.001), and significant correlations between HCRP1 and survival time were observed for the TNBC group (P < 0.004). Furthermore, an inverse relationship between HCRP1 and EGFR expression was found both for the complete set of all cases (P < 0.001), and for each phenotype analyzed individually (P < 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results suggest that HCRP1 may play an important role in EGFR regulation and that its decreased expression is an independent predictor of breast cancer, especially in TNBC patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong University Jinan 250021, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Jiawen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University Shanghai 200032, China.
authors.forename: Wenlin
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong University Jinan 250021, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Qiangxiu
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University Jinan 250012, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Qinghui
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Breast and Thyroid Surgery, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong University Jinan 250021, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Xungeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong University Jinan 250021, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoyan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University Shanghai 200032, China.
authors.forename: Xiuping
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong University Jinan 250021, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Yejun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Qin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D018450:Disease Progression; D056827:Endosomal Sorting Complexes Required for Transport / Q000378:metabolism*; D066246:ErbB Receptors / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis / Q000473:pathology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000378:metabolism; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen / Q000378:metabolism; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone / Q000378:metabolism; D015996:Survival Rate
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D056827:Endosomal Sorting Complexes Required for Transport; D066246:ErbB Receptors; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone; C496437:VPS37A protein, human; C508053:ERBB2 protein, human
keywords: Breast cancer; EGFR; HCRP1; prognostic marker; triple negative breast cancer