Expression of E-cadherin, Vimentin and Snail in infiltrating ductal carcinoma and their relationships with prognosis

Objective To investigate the expression of E-cadherin, Vimentin, Snail in breast cancer, and the correlations between these protein with clinicopathologic features and clinical prognosis. Methods Immunohistochemistry analysis was used to examine the expression levels of E-cadherin, Vimentin, and Snail in 89 cases of breast-infiltrating ductal carcinoma.Correlations between the expression of E-cadherin, Vimentin, and Snail with clinicopathologic features were analyzed. Results E-cadherin, Vimentin and Snail positive rate in infiltrating ductal carcinoma tissue was 51.7% , 53.9% and 55.0%, the negative correlation were showed (P=0.003). E-cadherin, Vimentin and Snail were correlated with clinicopathological stage (P<0.001). Snail and Vimentin were highly expressed in invasion of ductal carcinomal(IDC). Snail expression was closely associated with lymph node metastasis (P=0.029). Vimentin expression was closely associated with lymph node metastasis and estrogen receptor(ER) status (P=0.006, P<0.005). E-cadherin expression was closely associated with progestrone receptor(PR) status (P=0.030). Luminal type A, HER-2 positive patients of Vimentin and Snail positive rates were lower than Basal-like type breast cancer patients (P=0.012). E-cadherin expression rate was higher than Basal-like type breast cancer patients (P=0.004); Kaplan-Meier survival analysis demonstrated that the five-year survival was higher for patients with E-cadherin-positive tumors, while it was lower for those with vimentin, snail positive tumors.E-cadherin and vimentin levels were independent prognostic factors for favorable outcomes of IDC as determined by Cox multivariate analysis (P=0.032, P=0.024), while Snail expression has no correlation with the outcome (P=0.879, P=0.835). Conclusion The E-cadherin, Vimentin and Snail protein of expression played an important role in the invasion, metastasis and development of breast invasive ductal carcinoma.It is of great significance to recognize the biological characteristics of breast cancer and in order to guide the diagnosis and treatment. Key words: Breast cancer; E-cadherin protein; Vimentin protein; Snail protein; Prognosis