The expression and correlation between Livin and PTEN in breast cancer

Objective To investigate the expressions of tumor suppressor-PTEN and apoptosis suppressor-Livin in breast cancer and the correlation between them,and to provide theoretical bases for the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.Methods The expressions of PTEN and Livin were detected by immunohistochemistry in 50 cases of breast cancer tissues,20 cases of adjacent-carcinoma tissues and 10 cases of normal breast tissues.Results The expression levels of PTEN in normal breast tissues,corresponding adjacent-carcinoma tissues and breast cancer tissues were 100%,90%,40%,respectively,and there were significant differences in the expression of PTEN between the breast cancer tissues and the other two kinds of tissues (P0.05).The expression of Livin in breast cancer was significantly correlated with the histological grade,clinical staging and axillary lymph node metastases (P0.05),however,which was not related with patients’ age,tumor’s size and distant metastasis (P0.05).The Livin was highly expressed in breast cancer tissues,however,PTEN was lowly expressed,and the expression of Livin was negatively correlated with that of PTEN (r=-0.298,P0.05).Conclusion The high expression of Livin and the low expression of PTEN may play an important role in the pathogenesis and progression of breast cancer.The expressions of Livin are negatively correlated with those of PTEN,which suggests that the expression levels of Livin and PTEN can be used as the important indexes for evaluating the invasive ability of breast cancer.