Expressions of Livin and Smac in breast cancer and their clinical significance

OBJECTIVE:To investigate the expressions of Livin and Smac in breast carcer and their correlation with metastasis and recurrence. METHODS:Immunohistochemisty was employed to determine the expressions of Livin and Smac in 80 breast carcinomas and paired adjacent breast tissues. RESULTS:Livin was overexpressed in breast cancers (63.75%,51/80) compared with the paired adjacent breast tissues (50.00%,40/80) (P=0.003)and Smac was significantly lower in breast cancer (42.50%,34/80) compared with the paired adjacent breast tissues (72.50%,58/80)(P=0.000). The protein expressions of Livin and Smac were significantly correlated with the histological grade,diameter of tumor,axillary lymph node metastasis,recurrence of tumor and expression of c-erbB-2 (P0.05). There was a significantly negative relationship between Livin and Smac (γ=-0.299,P=0.007). CONCLUSION:The inactivation of Smac and overexpression of Livin proteins might enhance the tumour cell proliferation and malignance and play an important role in progress of human breast cancer.