Expression And Clinical Significance Of E-cadherin In Breast Cancer

ObjectiveTo analyze the expression of E-cadherin in breast cancer and its relationship with clinicopathological features,so as to have a deeper understanding of the role of E-cadherin in the occurrence and development of breast cancer,and to explore the possibility of E-cadherin becoming a new therapeutic target for breast cancer.MethodsThe data of 223 cases of breast cancer who underwent modified radical mastectomy in the first affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University from October 2016 to December 2018 were analyzed retrospectively.The expression of E-cadherin in breast cancer was detected by immunohistochemical staining.The relationship between E-cadherin and clinicopathological indexes and the expression of E-cadherin in different molecular types of breast cancer were analyzed by SPSS21.0 software package(the Bonferroni method is used to correct the pairwise comparison between groups,and the test level is adjusted by ?=0.08).Results1.In 223 cases of breast cancer,there was no statistically significant difference between the expression of E-cadherin and age,menstrual status,histological grade and tumor diameter,but there was significant difference between histological classification,axillary metastatic lymph node number and TNM stage(p<0.05).2.The positive expression rate of E-cadherin in Luminal A breast cancer was 69.2%.The positive expression rate of E-cadherin in Luminal B breast cancer was 76.8%,the positive expression rate of E-cadherin in HER-2 overexpression subtype of breast cancer was 91.2%,and the positive expression rate of E-cadherin in triple negative breast cancer was 60.0%.There was significant difference in E-cadherin expression among the four molecular subtypes of breast cancer.The positive expression rate of E-cadherin in triple negative breast was the lowest.Pairwise comparison between groups showed that the positive expression rate of E-cadherin in HER-2 overexpressed breast cancer group(91.2%)was significantly higher than that in triple negative breast cancer group(60.0%),and the difference was statistically significant(P<0.08).3.The expression of E-cadherin was positively correlated with the expression of HER-2(r=0.137,P=0.041),but not correlated with the expression of ER,PR and Ki67(all P<0.05).4.Age,menstrual status,histological grade,tumor diameter,axillary lymph node metastasis and TNM stage were included in the binary Logistic regression model for multivariate analysis.The results showed that menstrual status and axillary lymph node metastasis were the clinicopathological factors affecting the expression of E-cadherin.5.The four molecular indexes of ER,PR,HER-2 and Ki67 were included in the binary Logistic regression model for multivariate analysis.The results showed that ER,PR,HER-2 and Ki67 were not the molecular pathological factors influencing the expression of E-cadherin.Conclusions1.The expression of E-cadherin is related to histological classification,axillary metastatic lymph node number and TNM stage.The positive expression rate of E-cadherin in triple negative breast cancer is significantly lower than that in non-triple negative breast cancer.Low expression of E-cadherin may be more prone to tumor cell invasion and metastasis and promote the occurrence of malignant biological behavior of breast cancer.2.The expression of E-cadherin is positively correlated with the expression of HER-2.The positive expression rate of E-cadherin in breast cancer with overexpression of HER-2 is significantly higher than that in patients with triple negative breast cancer,which may suggest that there is an interaction between HER-2 and E-cadherin,and further experiments are needed to study its mechanism.