Abstract

Expression of a recently identified nm23 gene has been previously proposed to be inversely correlated to tumor metastatic potential It was proposed that nm23 may function as a suppressor gene for tumor metastasis. It has recently been found that the sequence of nm23 and NDP-Kinase(NDP-K) is identical. We studied l42 cases of primary breast carcinoma for the expression of nm23 protein using an immunohistochemical method, and compared these results with other known prognostic factors of the breast carcinoma. The nm23 protein was stained in the cytosol and/or the perinucleus of carcinoma cells in 130 cases(91.5%). Among the positive cases, 67cases were stained to lower density while 63 cases were stained to higher density. There were no significant correlation between nm23 protein and other parameters such as tumor size, axillary lymph node metastasis, histologic parameters, hormone receptor, p53, c-erbB-2, and EGFR. Although expression of nm23 was positively associated with longer disease free survival (p<0.05) but not with overall survival. These study showed that nm23 expression in human breast cancer may be one of the prognostic factors, but further studies using antibodies specific for NDP-K/nm23 subtypes are clearly indicated.

• Keywords: Breast carcinoma, NM23, Prognosis