Expression of PTEN, p53 and EGFR in the molecular subtypes of breast carcinoma and the correlation among them

Abstract

To study the expression of PTEN, p53 and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) in the molecular subtypes of breast carcinoma and to evaluate the correlations with triple-negative breast cancer. Immunohistochemical MaxVision(TM) method was used to detect the expression of PTEN, p53, EGFR, estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) in 291 cases of infiltrating ductal carcinoma of breast. The positive expression of PTEN, p53 and EGFR protein in breast carcinoma was 57.0%, 57.0% and 38.5%, respectively, which were significantly different from those in benign breast diseases (P<0.05). The expression of PTEN or EGFR in breast cancer was correlated with tumor size, histological grade, lymph node metastasis, TNM stage, ER and HER2 status (P<0.05); the expression of p53 was correlated with tumor size, histological grade and ER status (P<0.05). The difference of positive expression rates of PTEN, p53 and EGFR protein among different subtypes including luminal A, luminal B (HER2-), luminal B (HER2+), HER2 over-expression and triple-negative was statistically significant (P<0.05). There were close correlations among PTEN, p53 and EGFR in the triple-negative subtype (P<0.05). Low expression of PTEN and high expression of EGFR and p53 are observed in triple-negative breast cancer, which may synergistically contribute to the pathogenesis of triple-negative breast cancer.