The expression and clinical significance of CD47 and calreticulin in infiltrating ductal breast carcinomas

Objective To evaluate the expression of CD47 and calreticulin and their relationships with clinicopathologic features, prognosis in infiltrating ductal breast carcinomas. Methods The expression of CD47 and calreticulin was evaluated in 128 cases with infiltrating ductal breast carcinomas by means of immunohistochemistry, and the relationship between CD47 and other clinicopathologic factors as well as prognosis were analyzed. Results The expression level of CD47 in cancer nest was 81/128, which was lower than 106/128 in its adjacent normal epithelium (χ2=12.400,P<0.05),but calreticulin expression was 50/128 and was higher in cancer nest(χ2=21.510,P< 0.05).In addition,the expression level of calreticulin had certain difference in different molecular subtype(χ2= 21.510,P<0.05),and an increased expression in Basal-like and Her-(2+)/ER(-)subtypes.The expression level of CD47 was associated with tumor sizes,histological tumor grade and lymph node involvement(χ2=11.400,4.732,5.432,all P<0.05),and the expression level of calreticulin was associated with histological tumor grade and distant metastasis(χ2=10.810,6.770,all P<0.05).The 5-year survival rate of patients performed following-up was 68.37%. Univariate analysis indicated the survival rate in 5 years of high level CD47,calreticulin expression was higher than that of low level CD47,calreticulin expression(χ2=5.231,13.069,all P<0.05). Conclusion The expression of CD47, calreticulin is associated with index of dysprognosis and survival rate in 5 years, so combined CD47 and calreticulin detect may be of prognostic value in patients with breast caner. Key words: CD47; Calreticulin; Breast neoplasms; Immunohistochemistry