Expression of nm23 in the spectrum of pre-invasive, invasive and metastatic breast lesions.

Department of Histopathology, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India. docaman5@hotmail.com.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Nm23 protein is a metastasis suppressor protein, expressed in all tissues. Reduced Nm23 expression is related to a high incidence of lymph node and distant metastasis and poor prognosis in patients with cancers. The present study was done to analyze the expression of Nm23 using immunohistochemistry in non-neoplastic and neoplastic breast lesions. METHODS: Sections from 93 samples were studied and classified into non-proliferative breast lesion (13), fibrodenoma (7), proliferative breast lesion (13), carcinoma in situ (20), invasive carcinoma (23) and metastatic deposits in lymph nodes (17). RESULTS: Nm23 expression in these groups showed a progressive down regulation with increasing neoplastic transformation. On comparing the various groups, nm23 expression was significantly different between the various subgroups with greatest expression in non-proliferative lesions and least in metastatic deposits (p < 0.050). CONCLUSION: It is concluded that the modulation of nm23 in a spectrum of breast lesions can be indicative of metastatic phenotype and help to predict the aggressiveness of disease.

PMID: 18510781 [PubMed - in process]

PMCID: PMC2423356