The expression of p53, bcl-2, bax, fas and fasL in the primary tumour and lymph node metastases of breast cancer

Figures & data

Table I.  The characteristics of the primary tumours and parallel lymph node metastases at the time of diagnosis of the 59 investigated patients.

Factor	Subgroups
Histology	Ductal	55 (93%)
	Lobular	4 (7%)
ER	positive	27 (46%)
	negative	30 (51%)
	Unknown	2 (3%)
Grade	1	6 (10%)
	2	38 (64%)
	3	15 (25%)
	Primary tumours	Metastases	Metastases
		negative	positive
p53	negative	27 (46%)	3 (5%)
	positive	6 (10%)	23 (39%)
bcl-2	negative	28 (47%)	4 (7%)
	positive	8 (14%)	19 (32%)
bax (n = 58)	negative	26 (45%)	3 (5%)
	positive	15 (26%)	14 (24%)
fas	negative	18 (31%)	6 (10%)
	positive	18 (31%)	17 (29%)
fasL	negative	9 (15%)	2 (3%)
	positive	32 (54%)	16 (27%)

Figure 1.  In the fasL positive lymph nodes the fasL staining was very often seen in the peripheral areas of the nodes. In this specimen the peripheral staining of fasL (fasLp) was scored as 3 and the diffuse nodal staining (fasL) as 20.

Table II.  The change of the tumour biologic factors between primary tumours and parallel lymph node metastases.

Tumour biologic factor	Percentage of cases in which nodal expression was >20% lower than in the primary tumour	Percentage of cases in which nodal expression did not change more than 20%	Percentage of cases in which nodal expression was >20% higher than in the primary tumour
p53	17%	73%	10%
bcl-2	15%	68%	17%
bax	25%	63%	10%
fas	34%	51%	15%
fasL	54%	39%	7%

Table III.  The significance of the correlation (Spearman) between the investigated tumour biologic factors (n = 59 except for bax n = 58).

Factor	nodal p53	nodal bax	nodal bcl-2	nodal fas	nodal fasL	nodal peripheral fasL
p53	p < 0.001	p = NS	p = 0.005	p = 0.018	p = NS	p = NS
	r = 0.77	r= − 0.17	r =−0.36	r = 0.31	r = 0.09	r = 0.10
bax	p = NS	p = 0.001	p = NS	p = NS	p = NS	p = NS
	r = − 0.10	r = 0.44	r = − 0.05	r = 0.08	r = − 0.05	r = − 0.12
bcl-2	p = 0.025	p = NS	p < 0.001	p = NS	p = NS	p = NS
	r = − 0.29	r = 0.14	r = 0.73	r = − 0.18	r = 0.09	r = 0.07
fas	p = NS	p = 0.025	p = NS	p = NS	p = NS	p = NS
	r = 0.20	r = 0.29	r = − 0.07	r = 0.13	r = 0.16	r = 0.17
fasL	p = NS	p = NS	p = NS	p = NS	p = 0.015	p = 0.047
	r = − 0.20	r = 0.21	r = 0.16	r = − 0.15	r = 0.32	r = 0.26
nodal p53		p = NS	p = 0.043	p = NS	p = NS	p = NS
		r = − 0.05	r = − 0.26	r = 0.21	r = − 0.06	r = − 0.06
nodal bax	p = NS		p = NS	p = NS	p = NS	p = NS
	r = − 0.05		r = 0.10	r = − 0.06	r = − 0.04	r = 0.01
nodal bcl-2	p = 0.043	p = NS		p = NS	p = NS	p = NS
	r = − 0.26	r = 0.10		r = − 0.15	r = 0.22	r = 0.13
nodal fas	p = NS	p = NS	p = NS		p = 0.012	p = 0.050
	r = 0.21	r = − 0.06	r = − 0.15		r = 0.33	r = 0.26
nodal fasL	p = NS	p = NS	p = NS	p = 0.012		p < 0.001
	r = − 0.06	r = − 0.04	r = 0.22	r = 0.33		r = 0.86

p = value for significance (only p ≤ 0.01 was considered significant due to multiple analyses).

r = Spearman correlation co-efficient.

Figure 2.  The correlation of the tumour biologic factors between primary tumours and parallel lymph node metastases presented as scatter grams. x = percentage of positively staining cancer cells in the primary tumour, y = percentage of positively staining cancer cells in parallel lymph node metastasis.

Table IV.  The combined status of fas and fasL of the primary tumour and parallel lymph node metastases. Here nodal fasL positivity (+) means that nodal fasL ≥ 10% and/or nodal peripheral fasL ≥ 2.

fas and fasL status of the primary tumour and parallel lymph node metastases	Number of cases (%)
tumour fas + /tumour fasL + /nodal fas + /nodal fasL +	9 (15%)
tumour fas + /tumour fasL + /nodal fas + /nodal fasL −	4 (7%)
tumour fas + /tumour fasL + /nodal fas − /nodal fasL +	9 (15%)
tumour fas + /tumour fasL + /nodal fas − /nodal fasL −	8 (14%)
tumour fas + /tumour fasL − /nodal fas + /nodal fasL +	1 (2%)
tumour fas + /tumour fasL − /nodal fas + /nodal fasL −	3 (5%)
tumour fas + /tumour fasL − /nodal fas − /nodal fasL +	0
tumour fas + /tumour fasL − /nodal fas − /nodal fasL −	1 (1.7%)
tumour fas − /tumour fasL + /nodal fas + /nodal fasL +	2 (3%)
tumour fas − /tumour fasL + /nodal fas + /nodal fasL −	1 (1.7%)
tumour fas − /tumour fasL + /nodal fas − /nodal fasL +	2 (3%)
tumour fas − /tumour fasL + /nodal fas − /nodal fasL −	13 (22%)
tumour fas − /tumour fasL − /nodal fas + /nodal fasL +	1 (2%)
tumour fas − /tumour fasL − /nodal fas + /nodal fasL −	2 (3%)
tumour fas − /tumour fasL − /nodal fas − /nodal fasL +	1 (1.7%)
tumour fas − /tumour fasL − /nodal fas − /nodal fasL −	2 (3%)