Analysis of SHIP2 Expression and its Correlation with VEGF and HER-2 Expression in Breast Cancer
Received Date: Jun 11, 2017 / Accepted Date: Jul 13, 2017 / Published Date: Jul 17, 2017
Abstract
Purpose: To investigate SHIP2 expression in breast cancer tissues, and its correlation with clinicopathological features and with the expressions of VEGF and HER-2 in cancer tissues.
Methods: Immunohistochemical staining for SHIP2, HER-2 and VEGF was performed on paraffin-embedded tissue specimens, including 80 specimens of breast cancer and 53 adjacent tissue samples. Two pathologists were invited to interpret the immunohistochemistry results using double-blind method. Expression profiles of SHIP2, HER-2 and VEGF were evaluated and scored according to percentage of positive cells and positive signal intensity. The correlation between SHIP2 and clinicopathological features was analyzed by chi-square test and fourfold table exact test. The correlation among SHIP2, HER-2 and VEGF expression were analyzed using Pearson contingency coefficient analysis for evaluating prognostic relevance to breast cancer.
Results: The positive expression rates of SHIP2, HER-2 and VEGF were significantly higher than that of adjacent normal tissues (p<0.05). SHIP2 expression was significantly increased, in the case of the four risk factors (the poor histological grade, the later stages, lymph node metastasis, and higher BMI) (p<0.05). Positive rate of both SHIP2 and VEGF protein expression indicated a significant correlation between the two proteins (r=0.30, p<0.05). In addition, in the HER-2 protein positive group, SHIP2 protein expression also showed a positive correlation (r=0.71, p<0.05) between these two proteins. Expression of all three proteins were highly related to tumor histopathologic grade, clinical terms, and lymphatic metastasis (p<0.05). Our data indicates that SHIP2 expression in tumor tissue is significantly correlated with HER-2 and VEGF expression.
Conclusion: Our study provides a proof of concept that SHIP2, correlated with HER-2 and VEGF, plays important roles in tumorigenesis, infiltration, and metastasis of breast cancer, and are highly associated with prognosis.
Keywords: Breast cancer; HER-2; Immunohistochemistry; SHIP2; VEGF
Citation: Han H, Wang B, Zhao J, Xu G, Wang X, et al. (2017) Analysis of SHIP2 Expression and its Correlation with VEGF and HER-2 Expression in Breast Cancer. J Clin Exp Pathol 7:314. Doi: 10.4172/2161-0681.1000314
Copyright: © 2017 Han H, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.