The role of bone marrow micrometastasis in breast cancer in judging prognosis.

Abstract

Objective To investigate the relationship between bone marrow micrometastasis of patients with breast cancer and clinical pathological parameters, some molecular markers as well as prognosis.Methods The expression of hMAM mRNA in BM of patients with breast cancer was detected by RT-PCR.The expressions of ER, PR in cancer tissues were detected by immunohistochemical SP method. Results About 38.2 % positive expression rate of hMAM mRNA in 102 patients with stage Ⅰ -Ⅳ breast cancer was found.The expression of hMAM increased more in patients with T2-3 (＞2 cm) tumors than T1 (≤2 cm) (P =0.001)and with stage Ⅱ ,Ⅲ than stage Ⅰ (P =0.001). The expression of hMAM in the BM of breast cancer with grade I was lower than that of grade Ⅱ or Ⅲ (P =0.014). The expression of hMAM in the BM was related to the pathological type (P =0.032) and the axillary lymph node metastasis (P =0.001). The expressions of hMAM in BM were much higher with ER negative in breast cancer tissues (P ＜0.05). There was a correlation between patients with positive expression of hMAM in BM and distant metastasis (P =0.009). Conclusion The micrometastasis in BM is correlated with some clinical pathological parameters and some tumor markers. The patients with positive expression of hMAM in BM have more chances with distant metastasis and poor prognosis. The detection of micrometastasis may be as one of targets to predict the prognosis of breast cancer. Key words: Breast neoplasms; Bone marrow micrometastasis; Human mammaglobin; Biological factor; Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction; Prognosis