Objective To investigate clinical significance of serum VEGF-C level and C-erbB-2 protein expression in patients with breast cancer. Methods Sixty-two female patients with breast invasive ductal cancer and breast benign lesion were respectively selected. Serum VEGF-C level was detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) before operation and at one month after operation, and C-erbB-2 protein expression in tissues of breast cancer was detected by immunohistochemistry. Then, the relationship between serum VEGF-C level and clinicopathologic characteristics and C-erbB-2 protein expressions wereas analyzed. Results The serum VEGF-C level before operation in breast cancer patients〔(279.65±17.34) pg/ml〕 was significantly higher than that in breast benign lesions patients 〔(167.26±12.15) pg/ml〕, P＜0.01. In breast cancer patients, the serum VEGF-C level before operation was higher than that at one month after operation 〔(209.45±15.23) pg/ml〕, P＜0.01. The serum VEGF level was related to tumor stage (P＜0.05) but not to patient age, tumor size, menopause status , lymph node metastasis or not and ER and PR expression (Pgt;0.05). The positive expression rate of C-erbB-2 protein in breast cancer patients (54.84%, 34/62) was significantly higher than that in breast benign lesion patients (11.29%, 7/62), P＜0.01. Moreover, the positive expression rate of C-erbB-2 protein in breast cancer patients with axilla lymph node metastasis (69.44%) was significantly higher than that without axilla lymph node metastases (34.62%), P＜0.05. The serum VEGF level increased with increasing expression intensity of C-erbB-2 protein and there was positive correlation between them (r=0.813，P＜0.05). Conclusions The serum VEGF-C level in breast cancer may be conducted as an assisted marker to differential diagnosis of breast tumor. C-erbB-2 is related to lymph node metastasis of breast cancer patients. There is synergistic effect between VEGF-C and C-erbB-2 in the lymph node metastasis way of breast cancer.
Objective To investigate the expressions of C-erbB-2, estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) in breast cancer tissues and to explore their relationship with patients-age, tumor size, lymph node metastasis, histopathological type and the stage of cancer. Methods The expressions of C-erbB-2, ER and PR in 83 cases of breast cancer tissues were detected by immunohistochemistry and the clinical significance was statistically analyzed. Results The positive expression rate of C-erbB-2, ER and PR in 83 cases of breast cancer tissues were 78.3%, 56.6% and 55.4%, respectively. The expressions of C-erbB-2, ER and PR were not correlated to patients’ age, tumor size, histopathological type and the stage of cancer (Pgt;0.05). While the expression of C-erbB-2 rather than ER and PR was correlated to lymph node metastasis (P＜0.05) and the correlation was positive (r=0.387, P＜0.05). Conclusion The positive expression of C-erbB-2 is one of lymph node metastasis factors for breast cancer patients. Combined detection of ER and PR expression may be helpful to clinical treatment and predict prognosis for breast cancer patients.