Expression and clinical significance of B7-H4 and FOXP3 in breast cancer.

Objective:To study the expression of B7-H4 and FOXP3 in breast carcinoma ,and texplore their relationship and clinical significance. Methods: The expression of B7-H4 protein and FOXP3 protein was evaluated by immunohistochemistry in 11 cases of normal breast, 25 cases of benign lesions, and272 cases of breast carcinoma; The expression of B7-H4 mRNA was measured by in situ hybridization in 10 cases of normal breast, 10cases of benign lesions and 20 cases of invasive breast cancer. Results: The positive rate of B7-H4 protein and FOXP3 protein in breast cancer was significantly higher than that in benign lesions and normal breast (p0.05); There was no correlation between the positive rate of B7-H4 protein and FOXP3 protein in breast cancer and age, tumour size, histological classification (p0.05), but the expression of B7-H4 protein and FOXP3 protein was positively correlated to histological grade and lymph node matastasis (p0.05); The expression of B7-H4 in breast cancer was significantly positive correlated with FOXP3(r=0.306,p0. 001); There was no statistical significance on positive rate of the expression of B7-H4 mRNA between breast cancer, benign lesions and normal breast (p0.05); There was no statistical significance between the positive rate of B7-H4 mRNA and age, tumour size, histological classification, histological grade and lymph node matastasis (p0.05). Conclusions: The expression of B7-H4 protein and FOXP3 protein in breast cancer is higher than that in normal breast and in benign lesions. The results suggeste that B7-H4 and FOXP3 may be closely related to metastasis and prognosis.