Expression of HAX1 and Ki-67 in breast cancer and its correlations with patient's clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the HS-1-associated protein X-1 (HAX1) and Ki-67 expression in the breast cancer and its clinical significance.

METHODS: Breast cancer tissues and tumor-adjacent tissues were collected from 81 patients, and immunohistochemistry was conducted to detect the HAX1 and Ki-67 expression. The correlations of HAX1 expression with demographics, clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis were evaluated.

RESULTS: HAX1 was highly expressed in the breast cancer, and its expression was related to the degree of breast cancer differentiation (P=0.002), lymph nodes metastasis (P=0.008) and progesterone receptor (PR) (P=0.021), but not with the age, tumor size, histological type, estrogen receptor (ER), HER2 and p53. HAX1 expression was positively related to Ki-67 expression in the breast cancer (r(2)=0.394, P=0.019). In addition, a higher HAX-1 expression was related to a lower 10-year survival rate.

CONCLUSION: HAX1 is a new protein related to the breast cancer and probably plays an important role in the invasion and metastasis of breast cancer. Thus, HAX1 may be used as a potential target for the therapy of breast cancer.