Abstract:

Objective To investigate the expression of metastasis associated protein （MTA）-3 in breast cancer patients and its relationship with axillary lymph node metastasis. Methods The tumor tissues of 122 patients with breast cancer （infiltrating ductal carcinoma）and normal breast tissues （control group） of 20 cyclomastopathy patients were collected. Immunohistochemistry was used for determining the expression of MTA-3. Combined with their clinicopathological data,the relations of MTA-3 with clininopathological characteristics,Ki-67 and epithelial cadherin（E-cadherin） were evaluated. According to the status of axillary lymph node metastasis,the patients with breast cancer were classified into metastasis group （55 cases） and non-metastasis group （67 cases）. Results The expression of MTA-3 in breast cancer group （32.8%） was lower than that in control group（85.0%）（P=0.000）. MTA-3 expression was related with histological differentiation,clinical stage,primary tumor size,axillary lymph node metastasis and molecular classification （P<0.05）,without age,menstruation and body mass index （P>0.05）. There was statistical significance in histological differentiation,clinical stage and molecular classification between metastasis and non-metastasis groups（P<0.05）. There was no statistical significance in age,menstruation,body mass index or primary tumor size（P>0.05）. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that MTA-3 expression was a protective factor of axillary lymph node metastasis for patients with breast cancer [odds ratio （OR）=0.662,95% confidence interval （CI） 0.246-0.891]. The expression of MTA-3 had negative correlations with the number of axillary lymph node metastasis（r=-0.197,P=0.030） and Ki-67（r=-0.358,P=0.000）,while there was a positive correlation with E-cadherin （r=0.237,P=0.009）. Conclusions MTA-3 is lowly expressed and is related with axillary lymph node metastasis in breast cancer.

Key words: Metastasis associated protein-3, Breast cancer, Axillary lymph node, Tumor metastasis