Cytokeratin and vimentin expression in breast cancer

The transition from epithelial keratin to mesenchymal vimentin expression marks an important step in the malignant progression of breast cancer. This study analyzed the clinical significance of cytokeratin and vimentin in patients with breast cancer. Expression of cytokeratin and vimentin was evalua...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The International journal of biological markers 2009, Vol.24 (1), p.38-46
Main Authors: VORA, Hemangini H, PATEL, Nupur A, RAJVIK, Kruti N, MEHTA, Shalvi V, BRAHMBHATT, Birwa V, SHAH, Manoj J, SHUKLA, Shilin N, SHAH, Pankaj M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Analytical, structural and metabolic biochemistry
Biological and medical sciences
Biomarkers, Tumor - metabolism
Breast Neoplasms - metabolism
Breast Neoplasms - mortality
Breast Neoplasms - pathology
Breast Neoplasms - secondary
Disease-Free Survival
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Immunohistochemistry
Investigative techniques, diagnostic techniques (general aspects)
Kaplan-Meier Estimate
Keratins - metabolism
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
Molecular biophysics
Neoplasm Recurrence, Local - metabolism
Prognosis
Receptor, ErbB-2 - metabolism
Retrospective Studies
Vimentin - metabolism
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The transition from epithelial keratin to mesenchymal vimentin expression marks an important step in the malignant progression of breast cancer. This study analyzed the clinical significance of cytokeratin and vimentin in patients with breast cancer. Expression of cytokeratin and vimentin was evaluated by immunohistochemistry on paraffin-embedded tissue sections of patients with breast cancer. Loss of cytokeratin was seen in 11% of the patients. A clearer trend towards loss of cytokeratin was observed in patients with stage IV disease and PR negativity. Weak cytokeratin expression was present in patients who developed recurrence or metastatic disease. Loss of cytokeratin was associated with reduced overall survival in univariate and multivariate analysis, gain of vimentin expression was seen in 57% of breast carcinoma patients. It was higher in patients with lymph node positivity, advanced stage, HER2 positivity, and disease recurrence or metastasis. Multivariate survival analysis indicated that gain of vimentin expression was associated with reduced relapse-free survival. Loss of cytokeratin and gain of vimentin expression are indicators of biologically aggressive breast carcinoma.
ISSN:0393-6155
1724-6008
DOI:10.1177/172460080902400106