Clinicopathological significance and prognostic value of CD133 expression in triple-negative breast carcinoma

Currently, CD133 is one of the best markers to characterize cancer stem cells and Her-1 is reported as an important marker for the prognosis of triple-negative breast cancer. To investigate the relationship between the expression of CD133 and Her-1 and clinicopathology as well as prognosis in triple-negative breast cancer, 67 cases of triple-negative invasive ductal breast carcinoma taken from 422 patients with breast cancer were analyzed by immunohistochemistry and clinicopathology with follow-up. The CD133 and Her-1 were expressed as positive in 43.3% (29/67) and 53.7% (36/67) of patients, respectively. The expression of CD133 corresponded to tumor size (P = 0.022), clinical stage (P = 0.001) and lymphatic metastasis (P = 0.001), but not to age and histological grade. By Kaplan-Meier analysis the expression of CD133 was correlative with overall survival (OS) (log rank = 9.346, P = 0.002) and disease free survival (DFS) (log rank = 38.840, P = 0.0001) time of breast cancer patients. The expression of Her-1 was corresponding to tumor size (P = 0.031), clinical stage (P = 0.005) and lymphatic metastasis (P = 0.002), but not to age and histological grade. By Kaplan-Meier analysis the expression of Her-1 was correlative with overall survival (OS) (log rank = 7.998, P = 0.005) and DFS (log rank = 4.227, P = 0.040) time of patients with cancer. It is concluded that the expression of CD133 and Her-1 may be correlative with prognosis in triple-negative breast cancer. (Cancer Sci 2011; 102: 1107-1111).