Near-absolute expression of the bcl-2 protein identifies a subgroup of stage II breast cancer patients with a most favorable outcome. Results of a clinicopathological study
Date
2001Author
Briassoulis, E. ChAgnantis, Niki J.
Zagorianakou, P.
Kamina, S.
Gorezi, M.
Pavlidis, Nicholas
Bai, M. C.
Source
Journal of Experimental and Clinical Cancer ResearchVolume
20Issue
3Pages
341-344Google Scholar check
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Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The clinical relevance of quantitative assessment of tumor-tissue expression of the bcl-2 protein in operated stage II breast cancer was investigated in this study. Thirty-five cases were studied by immunohistochemistry for the expression of bcl-2 protein and analyzed for disease outcome. One fourth (25%) of the cases were negative and 57% demonstrated near-absolute expression of the bcl-2 protein. No association was found between immunohistochemical detection of the protein with age, hormonal receptor status and tumor grading other than between bcl-2 and estrogen receptor expression (p=0.01). An impressively positive impact of near-absolute expression of bcl-2 on clinical outcome was identified. Our results provide evidence that quantitative assessment of bcl-2 expression constitutes a new approach in early breast cancer With potential clinical implications. We consider that molecular sub-staging of patients with stage II breast cancer by level of bcl-2 expression provides additional important prognostic information and prompts for investigation of its clinical significance on the issue of adjuvant systemic therapy.