Abstract:

Objective To investigate the correlation between metastasis-associated protein 3 (MTA3) and the prognosis of patients with breast cancer. Methods Tissue microarrays were made using 160 breast cancer samples and contained epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) data, estrogen receptor (ER) data, and follow-up information. The expression of MTA3 protein was detected by immunohistochemical method and the correlation between the expression of MTA3 and the prognosis was analyzed. Results For EGFR+/ER- breast cancer, the overall survival of patients with high expression of MTA3 in cancer tissues was longer (67.9% and 41.2%, P=0.059). For EGFR-/ER+ breast cancer, the overall survival of patients with low expression of MTA3 in cancer tissues was longer (100.0% and 72.0%, P=0.039). For EGFR+/ER+ breast cancer, the expression of MTA3 in cancer tissues did not correlate to the prognosis (P=0.405). Conclusion The function of MTA3 may be bi-directionally regulated by EGFR and ER pathways, so as to affect the prognosis of patients with breast cancer.

Key words: metastasis-associated protein 3, epidermal growth factor receptor, estrogen receptor, breast cancer, prognosis