C-erbb-2, ras p21, and C-myc expression in breast-carcinoma - prognostic value and correlation with clinicopathological and biologic variables

We examined the relationship between c-erbB-2, ras, and c-myc expression with various clinicopathologic variables and silver-stained nuclear organizer region (Ag-NOR) counts in 74 patients with breast cancer. c-erbB-2 expression correlated significantly with axillary (AX) metastases and Ag-NOR counts, whereas ras expression did not correlate with any clinicopathologic variables or the Ag-NOR counts. c-myc expression correlated significantly with the histologic type, but not with the other clinicopathologic variables or the Ag-NOR counts. Among the patients with positive c-erbB-2 expression, however, an increased incidence of AX metastases and Ag-NOR counts were observed in the group with positive c-mvc and/or ras expression. Nevertheless, of the three genes, only c-erbB-2 expression appeared to be an important prognostic factor in the univariate analysis, and in the multivariate analysis in which AX metastases were excluded from the Cox model. Therefore, it was concluded that of the three genes, c-erbB-2 expression has the strongest prognostic value in breast cancer.