RETRACTED: Expression of FPN and Hepcidin in breast cancer tissues and association of their expression with occurrence of anemia (Retracted Article)

Objective: The expression of FPN and Hepcidin in breast cancer tissues and their association with clinical features, endocrine classification of breast cancer and occurrence of anemia were studied. Methods: The expression of FPN and Hepcidin in breast cancer tissues from 64 patients with breast cancer was measured using immunohistochemistry (IHC), and the correlation between the expression of FPN and the expression of Hepcidin was analyzed together with their association with clinical features, endocrine classification of breast cancer and anemia. Results: The positive rate of FP1 expression in luminal A+ luminal B group with a better prognosis was significantly higher than that in the group with a poor prognosis, while the expression of Hepcidin was significantly higher in the group with a poor prognosis compared with luminal A+ luminal B group. The positive rate of FP1 expression in ER-positive patients was remarkably higher than that in ER-negative group, while the expression level of Hepcidin was significantly higher in ER-negative group compared with ER-positive group. The expression of Hepcidin and FPN was associated with lymph node metastasis, without relation to age of patients and stage of tumors. The expression of FPN was also related to tumor size. The expression of Hepcidin was inversely related to that of FPN (r=-0.41, P<0.01). No difference was observed in the expression of Hepcidin or FPN between patients with anemia and those without anemia. Conclusion: Both Hepcidin and FPN were expressed in breast cancer tissues to varying degrees and their expression was related to the clinicopathological features, such as the endocrine classification of breast cancer, while no correlation was found between their expression and occurrence of anemia.