The objective of this study was to examine the expression and significance of β-catenin in the diagnosis and prognosis of breast cancer. Overall, 241 patients with histologically confirmed breast cancer who had undergone radical surgery were enrolled in this study. β-catenin protein expression in breast cancer samples was evaluated by immunohistochemistry. β-catenin was expressed in Nuclei/Plasma of the samples from 41 patients. β-catenin protein expression correlated with the histological grade of the tumor (P<0.05) and Ki-67 labeling (P<0.01). Survival analysis showed that β-catenin expression negatively correlated with breast cancer-specific survival. Our results showed prominent expression of β-catenin in breast cancer and strongly implicate the β-catenin in tumor promotion.
Keywords: Breast cancer; Ki-67; survival; tumor marker; β-catenin.