TY - JOUR T1 - Activation of NF-κB in Human Breast Cancer and its Role in Cell Proliferation and Progresssion JF - Chinese Journal of Clinical Oncology JO - Cancer Biol Med SP - 5 LP - 10 VL - 3 IS - 1 AU - Chunyou Cai AU - Zhi Yao Y1 - 2006/02/01 UR - http://www.cancerbiomed.org/content/3/1/5.abstract N2 - OBJECTIVE To investigate the expression of the nuclear transcription factor NF-κB, ER, HER2 and PCNA in breast cancers, and to study the relationship between activation of NF-κB and clinicopathologic parameters including the level of PCNA, ER, HER2, lymph node involvement, tumor size and histological grade (differentiation).METHODS Sixty cases of human breast cancer tissues and adjacent non-neoplastic breast tissues were examined for NF-κB, HER2 and ER, as well as PCNA by immunohistochemical methods. In addition the clinicopathologic parameters of the patients including lymph node involvement, tumor size and histological grade (differentiation) were collected.RESULTS The expression of NF-κB in the breast cancers and adjacent non-neoplastic breast tissue was 50.0% (30/60) and 40.0% (24/60) respectively, resulting in no significant difference (P>0,05). NF-κB and HER2 expression was positively correlated. whereas NF-κB and ER expression was negatively correlated. The NF-κB activation was 77.8% (14/ 18) in the breast cancers that were ER-/HER2+ a level significantly higher (P<0.001) in comparison to the other groups of patients. The expression of NF-κB in the low-differentiated group (grade III) was 57.1%, and in the moderate-differentiated group (grade II) was 50.3%, both of which were higher than the 35.7% found in the high-differentiated group (grade I). NF-κB activation in the cancers was significantly correlated with the histological grade (P<0.05), PCNA expression (P=0.003) and lymph node involvement and tumor size (P=0.03 and 0.002, respectively).CONCLUSION NF-κB was activated abnormally in a portion of the breast cancers. The finding that NF-κB activation was positively correlated with FIER2 expression, the level of PCNA, tumor grade,size and lymph node involvement is in accord with the ability of NF-κB to promote cellular proliferation and migration, clearly identifies the protein as a hallmark for targeted dysregulation in oncogenesis. NF-κB may be a hopeful target for breast cancer therapy. ER -