Objective: MicroRNAs (MiRNAs) regulate mammalian cell growth, differentiation, and apoptosis by altering the expression of other genes and serve multiple roles in tumorigenesis and progression. Proto-oncogene serine/threonineprotein kinase (RAF-1) functions as a part of the MAPK/ERK signal transduction pathway. The present study aim was to prospectively evaluate MicroRNA 106a (MiR-106a) and RAF-1 as a diagnostic and prognostic factor in early prediction of breast cancer (BC), recurrence and early detection of distant metastasis as well as to analyses the statistical correlation between MiR-106a and RAF-1 levels and clinical-pathological parameters including tumor size, lymph node, histological type and grading. Methods: Sera and plasma of 30 normal women and 50 women with breast carcinoma were assayed for MiR-106a by RT-qPCR as well as levels of Hb, WBCs and platelets count and RAF-1 by solid phase enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results: The patients' characteristics, they were classified according to grade into 8% grade I, 66% grade II, 22% grade III and 4% grade IV. The stages were classified according to the TNM system as stage II was the highest percentage 66%, while the lowest percentage was 10% for stage I and 24% for stage III. Also, Hb% and RAF-1 levels were significantly decreased in breast cancer patients as compared with healthy control. On the other hand, MiRNA-106a gene expression was non-significantly increased in positive lymph node metastasis patients (FC=3.66) when compared to patients with negative lymph node metastasis (FC=3.51). In addition, MiR-106a was significantly up-regulated in breast cancer patients with a fold of change 3.63 when compared to control samples. Conclusion: Expression of MiR-106a gene can be used as a diagnostic and prognostic noninvasive biomarker which can stimulates breast cancer cell invasion and proliferation through downregulation of Raf-1 levels.

Background: Overexpression of human epidermal receptor protein-2 (HER2) is correlated to a poor prognosis in breast cancer (BC) patients who respond well to anti-HER2 therapy. Objective: Therapeutic procedures for treating HER2-positive breast cancer (BC) patient address HER2 protein.According to reports, the expression of HER2 oncogene and its relationship to clinicopathological factors in BC patients is yet unknown. Patients and methods: The present study involved 50 patients who were diagnosed histologically with invasive primary breast carcinoma. The PR, ER, and HER2 immunohistochemistry testing was conducted on the formalin fixed paraffinembedded blocks of patient's breast tissue. The relationship between HER2 status and clinicopathologic diagnostic characteristics was investigated using analysis of variance and the Chi-Square Test. Results: Invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) was the most common histological type, accounting for 86% of cases. The highest percentage of patients was grade II (66.7 %), tumour size (2-5) cm accounted for 73.3 % of cases, and lymph node metastases were present in 84 %. The majority of the individuals were diagnosed at stage II (66.7 %). The majority of patients had moderate Nottingham prognosis index (66.7 %). 60 % and 33.3 % of women tested positive for the estrogen and progesterone receptors, respectively. 53.3 % of the women tested positive for HER2. Histological type (p = 0.049*) and histopathology grade (p = 0.002**) were both significantly associated with HER2 overexpression. Conclusion: HER2 positive expression could produce further evidence about the inadequate diagnosis of BC and could be utilized for pre-choice of BC patients with HER2-overexpressing who demonstrated resistance to hormonal treatment.