Abstract

The objective of this study is to investigate the expression of tumor metastasis suppressor gene KAI1 protein and matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP-2) in breast carcinoma. We retrospectively analyzed 60 cases of patients from June 2005 to June 2011 treated with radical mastectomy for invasive ductal breast cancer in our department. The carcinoma tissue was stained for KAI1 and MMP2 with immunohistochemistry. In breast cancer group, the positive expression rate of KAI1 was 41.7%, which was significantly lower than control (83.3%) (c² = 17.328, P < 0.05); the positive expression rate of MMP-2 was 80.0%, which was significantly higher than control group (16.7%) (c² = 41.637, P < 0.05). Within the breast cancer patients, the group with lymph node metastasis showed higher positive rate of KAI1 and MMP2 expression than those without lymph node metastasis (P < 0.05). The patients with tumor diameter more than 5 cm showed lower positive rate of KAI1 but higher positive rate of MMP-2 expression than patient group with tumor diameter less than 5 cm. Additionally, tumor-nodes-metastasis III (TNM III) grade patients showed lower positive rate of KAI1 but higher positive rate of MMP-2 expression than patient group in I and II grades. KAI1 and MMP-2 were highly expressed in breast cancer tissues. The positive expression of KAI1 and MMP-2 were associated with tumor metastasis, tumor size, TNM grades etc.

Key words: Breast cancer, KAI1, matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP-2), immunohistochemistry.