title: The clinical and prognostic significance of midkine in breast cancer patients.
abstract: Midkine overexpression has been shown to be a tumor biomarker in several types of human cancer, but little is known about the clinical significance of midkine in breast cancer patients. The aim of this study was to analyze the expression of midkine in breast cancer and its correlation with clinicopathological characteristics, including breast cancer patient's survival. The expression status of midkine in breast cancer from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO accession number: GDS3853) was observed initially. Furthermore, the expression of midkine messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein was examined in breast cancer and normal mammary tissues through real-time PCR and immunohistochemistry. Moreover, the relationship of midkine protein expression with clinical characteristics of 170 breast cancer patients was analyzed by immunohistochemistry. In our results, midkine was up-expressed in breast cancer tissues compared with normal mammary tissues in microarray data (GDS3853). Midkine mRNA and protein expression was significantly increased in breast cancer tissues than in normal mammary tissues. By immunohistochemistry, high levels of midkine protein were positively associated with the status of clinical stage, T classification, N classification, and M classification in breast cancer patients. Furthermore, midkine overexpression was an independent poor prognostic indicator for the survival of patients with breast cancer. In conclusion, overexpression of midkine protein serves as an unfavorable prognostic biomarker in breast cancer patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, The Central Hospital of Ankang City, Ankang, Shanxi, 725000, China.
authors.forename: Fuguang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology, The Central Hospital of Ankang City, Ankang, Shanxi, 725000, China.
authors.forename: Peijun
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, The Central Hospital of Ankang City, Ankang, Shanxi, 725000, China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, The Central Hospital of Ankang City, Ankang, Shanxi, 725000, China. kouchangyuan@163.com.
authors.forename: Changyuan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kou
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D016207:Cytokines / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008875:Middle Aged; D000078792:Midkine; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D016207:Cytokines; D000078792:Midkine
keywords: Biomarker; Breast cancer; Immunohistochemistry; Midkine; Prognosis