The aim of this study was to investigate expression of CD147 and MMP-9 in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) so as to determine whether these two proteins may be correlated with poor prognosis of TNBC patients. We examined the expression levels of the CD147 and MMP-9 in 127 patients with TNBC and 30 patients with mammary gland fibroma using immunohistochemical staining before any treatments. Furthermore, we analyzed the correlation between the expression of these two proteins and various clinicopathologic factors including survival status of patients with TNBC. Positive stain of CD147 and MMP-9 was observed in all samples of TNBC. Astatistically positive correlation was observed between the expression levels of CD147 and MMP-9 in TNBC tissues. The incidences of high expression were 48.0 % for CD147 and 53.5 % for MMP-9 in 127 TNBC tissues, respectively. High expression of either CD147 or MMP-9 was significantly correlated with clinical feature and shorter progression-free survival (PFS) (PCD147 = 0.039; PMMP-9 = 0.017) and overall survival (OS) (PCD147 = 0.037; PMMP-9 = 0.023). The expression levels of CD147 and MMP-9 are positively correlated with invasion, metastasis and shorter PFS/OS of TNBC. Patients with high expression of CD147 and MMP-9 had poor prognosis than TNBC patients with low expression.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a particular type of breast cancer which is characterized by its biological aggressiveness, worse prognosis, and lack of prognostic markers or therapeutic targets in contrast with hormonal receptor-positive and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive (HER2+) breast cancers. We aimed to evaluate survivin and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) expression and their prognostic value and determine their relationships with the clinicopathological parameters of TNBC. A total of 136 patients who had undergone a resection of primary TNBC were enrolled at the Third Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University from March 2003 to September 2005. Expression of ER, PR, HER2, EGFR, and survivin was assessed by immunohistochemistry. The association of TNBC and other clinicopathological variables and the prognostic value of survivin and EGFR expression were evaluated. Survivin was expressed in 62 (45.6 %) cases and EGFR was expressed in 82 (60.3 %) cases. Survivin expression was associated with menopausal status (P = 0.011), tumor size (P = 0.037), and lymph node status (P = 0.001). EGFR expression was associated with menopausal status (P = 0.029), lymph node status (P = 0.004), P53 expression (P = 0.001), Ki-67 expression (P = 0.028), and lymphatic vascular invasion (P = 0.037). A multivariate analysis demonstrated that tumor size (hazard ratio (HR) 1.587, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 1.081–2.330, P = 0.018 for disease-free survival (DFS); HR 1.606, 95%CI 1.096–2.354, P = 0.015 for overall survival (OS)), lymph node status (HR 2.873, 95%CI 1.544–5.344, P = 0.001 for DFS; HR 2.915, 95%CI 1.553–5.471, P = 0.001 for OS), tumor grade (HR 1.914, 95%CI 1.218–3.007, P = 0.005 for DFS; HR 1.983, 95%CI 1.228–3.203, P = 0.005 for OS), EGFR (HR 3.008, 95%CI 1.331–6.792, P = 0.008 for DFS; HR 3.151, 95%CI 1.374–7.226, P = 0.007 for OS), and survivin (HR 1.573, 95%CI 1.087–2.277, P = 0.016 for DFS; HR 1.607, 95%CI 1.088–2.374, P = 0.017 for OS) were of prognostic significance for disease-free and overall survival. We draw a conclusion from the present study that survivin and EGFR expression are useful prognostic markers of TNBC and might be useful for molecular targeting therapy of TNBC treatment.

In order to investigate the prognostic value of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC), the blood cells from 98 MBC patients and 60 controls were evaluated by RT-PCR to detect the presence of markers EpCAM, CK19, and hMAM. Peripheral blood was obtained from all patients with MBC before any systemic therapy. Immunofluorescence staining experiment was conducted on CTCs samples from 10 patients to investigate the coexpression of EpCAM, CK19, and hMAM. In addition, analyses were carried out for their correlation with patients' clinicopathologic features. EpCAM+, CK19+, and hMAM+ cells were detected in 50 (51.0 %), 43 (43.9 %), and 68 (69.4 %) of the 98 patients, respectively. Triple-marker-positive CTCs were detected in 86 of 98 (87.8 %) patients with a significantly higher rate than the control group. Among the 98 patients, 12 (12.2 %) patients were negative for three genes, 34 (34.7 %) positive for one gene, 29 (29.6 %) positive for any two genes, and 23 (23.5 %) positive for all three genes. Compared to single-marker detection, the triple combined marker detection exhibited significantly higher rate. Furthermore, the specificity of triple combined markers of serial test was 100 %. The expression of three genes was significantly correlated with lymph node metastasis, high histological grade, and high levels of serum CA153 and CEA. Double-immunofluorescence labeling confirmed the presence of following CTCs phenotypes: CK19+/hMAM+, CK19+/hMAM-, CK19-/hMAM+, CK19+/EpCAM+, CK19-/EpCAM+, CK19+/EpCAM-, hMAM+/EpCAM+, and hMAM+/EpCAM-. After 2 years of follow-up, the presence of CTCs with triple-marker positive in peripheral blood was an independent risk factor for reduced progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS), and the presence of CTCs before any chemotherapy predicts poor OS and PFS in patients with MBC.

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The objectives of this study are to explore the clinical features and treatment outcomes and to investigate the correlation between microvessel density (MVD) and survival in patients with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma (AITL). We retrospectively analyzed clinical and follow-up data of 31 patients treated in two hospitals during 1995-2009 histologically proven AITL. We also assessed MVD in the lump of 31 previously untreated patients using α-CD34 immunohistochemical staining. The median age of the 31 patients was 48 years, eighty percent of the patients were in an advanced stage. 67.7% of them had B symptoms, with the follow-up of 2-13 years, the 5-year overall survival rate was 25.8%. The response rates (RR) of CHOP group and COP (cyclophosphamide, vincristine and prednisolone) group are 76.5 and 75%, respectively, which is no significant difference (P=0.894). RR did not differ whether chemotherapy regimens contained anthracycline or not. The 3-year PFS rate for patients who received COP and CHOP regimen was 25.4 and 35.3% (P=0.562), while 5-year OS rates were 25.0 and 29.4%, respectively (P=0.667). The median PFS for patients with high MVD and low MVD were 15.1 and 30.0 months (P=0.048), while the median OS were 20 and 45 months, respectively (P=0.038). Patients who were sensitive to initial chemotherapy COP regimen have the similar therapeutic effect to CHOP regimen. Patients with high MVD measured in the microenvironment had worse PFS and OS than AITL patients with low expression.