Expression of Apelin and Snail protein in breast cancer and their prognostic significance

Objective To investigate the expression of Apelin and Snail proteins in breast cancer and their relationship with the clinicopathological features and prognosis. Methods The expression of Apelin and Snail proteins was detected by immunohistochemistry in 89 cases of breast cancer and 50 cases of mammary adenosis collected from January to June in 2008 at Fujian Cancer Hospital; the expression was correlated with the clinicopathological features and outcome of the patients. Results Apelin and Snail were expressed in 42 cases(47.2%)and 36 cases(40.4%)of breast cancers, respectively, and the expression was higher than that of control group (P 0.05). The prognosis of Apelin and Snail in both positive groups was worse than that of Apelin and Snail both negative groups (P<0.01). Multivariate COX regression analysis showed that Apelin and TNM staging could be used as independent prognostic factors for breast cancer (P<0.05). Conclusions Apelin and Snail are highly expressed in breast cancer, and associated with lymph node metastasis and TNM stage. There is a positive correlation between Apelin and Snail expression, which may suggest a role in breast carcinogenesis. The prognosis of breast cancer with expression of Apelin and co-expression of Apelin and Snail is poor. Therefore, Apelin may be used as an effective indicator to evaluate the prognosis of breast cancer patients. Key words: Breast neoplasms; Immunohistochemistry; Prognosis