Expression of zinc finger protein A20 in breast cancer and its clinical significance

Objective To investigate the expression levels of zinc finger proteins A20 in breast cancer and analyze their correlation with clinical pathological. Methods Normal tissues adjacent to breast cancer were collected from 60 patients who were hospitalized in 174th Hospital of Chinese People’s Liberation Army from 2010 to 2012. The expression levels of zinc finger protein A20 and mRNA in tissues were detected by immunohistochemistry and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), respectively. Results The expression of zinc finger protein A20 in breast cancer was significantly higher than that in normal tissue around cancer. The expression of zinc finger protein A20 was closely related to the differentiation degree of breast cancer cells (P<0.05), and its expression increased with the decrease in differentiation degree of breast cancer tissue. In addition, the expression of zinc finger protein A20 was also closely related to estrogen receptor expression, breast cancer metastasis and tumor stage. Conclusions The expression level of zinc finger protein A20 in breast cancer tissue is significantly increased, and the expression level is closely related to estrogen receptor expression, differentiation, metastasis and tumor stage. Key words: Breast cancer; Zinc finger protein A20; Differentiation; Metastasis; Tumor stage