PurposeαB-crystallin, a small heat shock protein, is an anti-apoptotic protein associated with aggressive tumor behavior. A recent study revealed that αB-crystallin is overexpressed in a metastatic variant of the GI101A human breast carcinoma cell line. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether αB-crystallin is related to other breast tumor markers and can predict a breast cancer prognosis.MethodsEighty-two patients who underwent breast cancer surgery at Hallym Sacred Heart Hospital were enrolled. αB-crystallin expression was determined by immunohistochemical staining. Estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor (PR), human epidermal growth factor receptor, lymphovascular invasion, histological grade, other tumor markers and time to recurrence were compared with αB-crystallin expression.ResultsαB-crystallin expression in breast cancer tissues was associated with PR (p=0.030), the number of metastatic lymph nodes (pN) (p=0.020), lymphovascular invasion (p=0.022), histological grade (p=0.004) and triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) (p=0.004). αB-crystallin expression significantly decreased time to recurrence (p=0.039).ConclusionThe results revealed a strong relationship between αB-crystallin and poor prognostic factors such as the number of metastatic lymph nodes (especially pN2), TNBC, and rapid time to recurrence. We believe that αB-crystallin could be a novel oncoprotein biomarker of a poor prognosis in breast cancer.

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Purpose: There are few molecular markers useful in practice for predicting prognosis of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) despite numerous basic researches. The objective of this study was to evaluate the prognostic values of several candidate markers of PTC (p53, Ki-67 and galectin-3) using immunohistochemistry (IHC), one of the most practical methods. Methods: IHC for p53, Ki-67 and galectin-3 were performed on formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues of 160 PTC specimens using monoclonal antibodies. The associations of the expressions of these markers with multiple clinicopathologic prognostic factors were assessed. Results: The overexpresion rates of p53, Ki-67 and galectin-3 were 48.8%, 64.3% and 97.8%, respectively. Overexpression of p53 protein was positively associated with extrathyroidal extension (P＜0.001). In addition, p53 immunoreactivity was more prevalent among Ki-67 overexpressed specimens (P＜0.001). Ki-67 immunoreactivity was positively correlated with tumor size (P＜0.05), which became more distinct when accompanied with p53 overexpression (P＜0.01). In contrast, no relationship between galectin-3 immunoreactivity and clinical prognostic factors was found. Conclusion: Our results suggest that overexpression of p53 protein and Ki-67 in papillary thyroid carcinoma is associated with tumor progression and that IHC for these proteins could be useful for predicting prognosis of patients with PTC.

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