Diagnostic of Cytokeratin-19 Gene Expression in Iranian Breast Cancer Patients
Diagnostic of Cytokeratin-19 Gene Expression in Iranian Breast Cancer Patients
Abolfazl Movafagh,1Marzieh Motallebi,2Atefeh Heidary Pour,3Neda Mansouri,4Ali Asghar Kolahi,5Hossein Hassanian-Moghaddam,6,*
1. Department of Medical Genetics, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 2. Department of Medical Genetics, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 3. Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Pharmaceutical Sciences Branch Islamic Azad University, Iran 4. Department of Medical Genetics, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 5. Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 6. Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Introduction: Breast cancer is the most common malignancy and the leading cause of cancer-related mortality in women (1). Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in the blood can be an important prognostic indicator for breast cancer patients (2). In both primary and metastatic breast cancer patients, tumor markers consist of various molecules that can be detected in plasma or other body fluids and tissues (3). A diagnostic tumor marker can be used to help in the diagnosis of a disease.CK19, one of the three main keratins besides CK8 and CK18 expressed in the simple and stratified epithelium and various carcinomas including breast cancer (9), is cleaved by caspase 3, and the soluble fragments are released and detected in cancer patients
Methods: General information
Breast cancer specimens from 50 women (mean age of
40.2 ± 65.55 years) who had undergone surgery at the Tehran
University-affiliated hospital and Shohadaye Tajrishbased
referral and teaching hospital affiliated to Shahid
Beheshti University of Medical Sciences were collected.
Also, normal breast tissues (N = 50) were taken from the
same patients that had undergone partial or total mastectomy.
Data for all patients were collected for analysis. All
of them were diagnosed with breast cancer without metastasis
and tested by IHC staining.
Patients were assigned on the basis of national/international
breast cancer protocols and the study was approved,
according to local law and regulations, by the Institutional
Review Boards of each participating referral hospital.
Written informed consent was requested from patients and
a questionnaire have been administered
Results: The expression level of CK19 from tumor tissues increased
significantly (P=0.21) compared to controls. Also,
the expression level of metastatic lymph nodes increased
significantly.
Conclusion: While additional validation studies are needed, the
present investigation showed that CK19 can be detected
in peripheral blood samples of breast cancer patients, and
can predict SLN status before surgery. Further, the CK19
copy number was strongly correlated with the number of
metastasis-positive LNs.