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. 2011 Jun;253(6):1165-71.
doi: 10.1097/SLA.0b013e318214c54e.

Clinical implications of stem cell gene Oct-4 expression in breast cancer

Cai-gang Liu  1 , Ying Lu, Bin-bin Wang, Yan-jun Zhang, Rui-shan Zhang, Yang Lu, Bo Chen, Huimian Xu, Feng Jin, Ping Lu
Affiliations

Clinical implications of stem cell gene Oct-4 expression in breast cancer

Cai-gang Liu et al. Ann Surg. 2011 Jun.

Abstract

Purpose: To explore the expression of stem cell genes in breast cancer and the relationship between stem cell gene expression and clinical and pathological characteristics and prognosis of breast cancer.

Background: By now, stem cell differentiation-related genes and the relationship between the genes and clinic-pathological characteristics and prognosis of breast cancer are still unclear.

Materials and methods: CD44+/CD24- tumor cells were selected by Flow cytometry. The differential expression of genes between CD44+/CD24- tumor cells and non-CD44+/CD24- tumor cells were detected by RT(2) Profiler™ PCR Array. The expression of stem cell gene Octamer-4 (Oct-4) was analyzed by immunohistochemistry staining and the relationship between Oct-4 and clinicopathological parameters of breast cancer was determined.

Results: Seven different genes including stem cell differentiation-related factors (CD44, Oct-4, and nestin), cell cycle regulators (APC and CDC2), and growth factors (HGF and TGF) were detected as significantly differently expressed between CD44+/CD24- tumor cells and non-CD44+/CD24- tumor cells. Oct-4 protein expressed significantly higher in cancerous tissues than adjacent-tumor tissues (P = 0.001). Moreover, we observed that the expression of Oct-4 protein was related to histological type, lymph node status and molecular type of breast cancer (P = 0.001, 0.006, and 0.001, respectively). After survival analysis, the cases with highly expressed Oct-4 protein attained a significantly poorer postoperative disease-specific survival than those with none/low expressed Oct-4 protein (P = 0.001). In the Cox regression test, tumor size, histological type, disease stage, lymph node metastasis, Her-2 and Oct-4 were detected as the independent prognostic factors (P = 0.031, 0.012, 0.001, 0.002, 0.030, and 0.003, respectively).

Conclusions: Oct-4 was highly expressed in CD44+/CD24- tumor cells, and may be a potential biomarker for the initiation, progression, and differentiation of breast cancer.

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