title: Expression of HAX1 and Ki-67 in breast cancer and its correlations with patient's clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study aimed to investigate the HS-1-associated protein X-1 (HAX1) and Ki-67 expression in the breast cancer and its clinical significance.
  
  
  METHODS
  Breast cancer tissues and tumor-adjacent tissues were collected from 81 patients, and immunohistochemistry was conducted to detect the HAX1 and Ki-67 expression. The correlations of HAX1 expression with demographics, clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis were evaluated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  HAX1 was highly expressed in the breast cancer, and its expression was related to the degree of breast cancer differentiation (P=0.002), lymph nodes metastasis (P=0.008) and progesterone receptor (PR) (P=0.021), but not with the age, tumor size, histological type, estrogen receptor (ER), HER2 and p53. HAX1 expression was positively related to Ki-67 expression in the breast cancer (r(2)=0.394, P=0.019). In addition, a higher HAX-1 expression was related to a lower 10-year survival rate.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  HAX1 is a new protein related to the breast cancer and probably plays an important role in the invasion and metastasis of breast cancer. Thus, HAX1 may be used as a potential target for the therapy of breast cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University Nantong 226001, China.
authors.forename: Chenyi
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sheng
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University Nantong 226001, China.
authors.forename: Qichao
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Ni
keywords: Breast cancer; HAX1; Ki-67; prognosis