EXPRESSION OF DLL4 AND HIF-1α IN BREAST CANCER AND ITS CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE

Objective To explore the expression of Delta-like Ligand 4(DLL4)and hypoxia-inducible factor 1α(HIF-1α)in breast cancer and its clinical significance. Methods Immunohistochemical staining was used to detect the expression of DLL4 and HIF-1αin 122 cases of infiltrating duct cancer of the breast-gradeⅠ33cases,gradeⅡ,40,and gradeⅢ,49.The correlation between the two expressions with clinicopathologic parameters was analyzed. Results The positive rate of DLL4 and HIF-1αin the low-grade(gradeⅠandⅡ)cancer group was 63.0%and 91.8%,respectively,and that in the high-grade cancer group was 56.2%and 89.8%,the differences being statistically significant(χ2=12.852,15.695;P0.05).While the difference of HIF-1αexpression between the gradeⅠ and gradeⅡ group was not significant(P0.05).The expression of DLL4 in the breast cancer was associated with histological grade,tumor size,clinical stage and lymph node metastasis(χ2=4.802-12.852,P0.05),and unrelated with patient age,ER,PR and HER2expression(P0.05).The expression of HIF-1αin patients with positive DLL4 was significantly higher than in those with negative DLL4(χ2=8.961,15.695;P0.05),the two expressions were positively correlated(r=0.270,P0.01). Conclusion DLL4 and HIF-1αare likely to co-regulate angiogenesis of the breast cancer and affect the development and prognosis of this malignancy,which can be used as an important reference mark for predicting its prognosis.