caveolin-1 expression in benign and malignant breast lesions and its correlation with expression of estrogen receptor (er), progesterone receptor (pr), and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (her2), lymph node metastasis, tumor grade, and survival of the patients

Background: recent studies have suggested a significant role for caveolin-1 (cav1) gene in the pathogenesis of breast carcinomas; however, current evidence is conflicting as some report a tumor suppression effect while others implicate this gene as a promoter of cancer development. objectives: the present study aimed to provide further evidence on this subject by comparing caveolin-1 expression between specimens obtained from normal breast tissues, benign lesions and malignant tumors. methods: in this cross-sectional study, subjects with specimens resected from their breast tissues for various reasons in shohadaye- tajrish hospital, tehran, iran during 2013 were included as the sample population. a total of 100 subjects participated in this survey (53 invasive breast cancer, 26 ductal carcinoma in situ (dcis), 13 ductal hyperplasia, and 8 normal). their tissue specimens were preparedandimmunohistochemical studies were performed to assess the expression of caveolin-1,humanepidermal growth factor receptor 2 (her2), estrogen receptor (er), and progesterone receptor (pr). correlations between these factors and the survival of patients were assessed using spss software. results: epithelial caveolin-1 expression was found to have a positive significant correlation with pathology group of the patients (p = 0.039), grade of the tumor (p = 0.032), and lymph node positivity (p = 0.046). a negative correlation was also observed between epithelial caveolin-1 positivity with her2 score (p = 0.036) and her2 positivity (p = 0.012). the overall survival of the patients was negatively affected by epithelial caveolin-1 expression (28.3 vs. 38.9 months; p = 0.001), grade of the tumor (p < 0.001), and lymph node involvement (34.1 vs. 40.5; p = 0.051), while er (39.7 vs. 28.9; p = 0.001) and pr (39.6 vs. 31.0; p = 0.010) positivity were associated with improved survival. conclusions: according to the findings, it seems that caveolin-1 expression might be associated with worse outcomes in patients with breast cancer.