Relationship Between Cd44 And Nm23 Gene Expression And Invasion And Metastasis In Breast Cancer Research

Objectives: To evaluate the significance of nm23 and CD44 genes expression in breast cancer progression and metastasis. Methods: Nm23-H1 CD44S CD44V3 and CD44V6 genes expressions in 30 malignant breast tumor and 10 benign breast tumor samples were detected by means of reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and lmmuno histo chemistry (IHC) assays. Results: (1) Both the positive rates of nm23-H1 and CD44V6 genes expression in malignant breast tumor were significantly higher than that in benign breast tumor; in malignant breast tumor tissues, CD44V6 positive rate was significantly elevated than CD44S and CD44V3 CD44S and CD44V3 positive expression rates did not show significant difference in malignant and benign breast tumor. (2) Both nm23-H1 and CD44V6 genes in malignant breast tumor correlated to tumor stage, but not to histological type. (3) The positive rate of nm23-H1 gene expression in cases with negative lymph nodes was significantly higher than in those with positive lymph nodes, when CD44V6 positive expression showed higher frequency in cases with positive lymph nodes, compared to those with negative lymph nodes. (4) We found no statistical correlation between CD44V6 and nin23 genes expression in malignant breast tumor. Conclusions: Both nm23-H1 and CD44V6 genes expression correlate with malignant breast cancer progression, invasiveness and metastasis. The determination of CD44 and nm23 expression in breast tumors should be an interesting predictive test for malignancy and metastasis.