[Association of CK20 expression with the progression, metastasis and prognosis of breast cancer].

AIM

To analyze the expression of CK20 in human breast cancer, and to evaluate the association between its expression and tumor's progression and prognosis.

METHODS

86 cases with breast cancer, 20 cases of benign tumor tissues were examined for the expression of CK20 by immunohistochemical staining.

RESULTS

The positive rate of CK20 expression in breast cancer was 80.23% (69/86), which was significantly higher than that in benign tumor tissues of breast [20.00% (4/20), P<0.01]. CK20 expression was associated with the histologic grades (P<0.05) and the pathological types (P<0.01). The expression of CK20 was observed to correlate positively with TNM stages (r=0.86, P<0.05), lymph node status (r=0.73, P<0.05) and HER-2 status (r=0.69, P<0.05), and correlate negatively with ER status (r=-0.58, P<0.05). Moreover, Kaplan Meier curves of overall survival analysis showed a significant difference between CK20 positive groups and negative group (P<0.01).

CONCLUSION

The results suggest that the expression of CK20 may be associated with the progression and prognosis of breast cancer.