Expression and Clinical Significance of Forkhead Box M1 and Polo-like Kinase 1 in Breast Carcinoma Tissues

Objective To investigate the expression and clinical significance of forkhead box M1 (FOXM1) and polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1) in breast carcinoma tissues.

Methods Immunohistochemical staining was used to detect the expression of FOXM1 and PLK1 in 803 cases of invasive ductal breast carcinoma and para-tumor breast tissues, and we evaluated the relationship of FOXM1 and PLK1 expression with the clinical pathological features of invasive ductal breast carcinoma patients, including histological grade, lymph node metastasis and pTNM stage.

Results The positive expression rates of FOXM1 and PLK1 protein in invasive ductal breast carcinoma tissues were 59.78% (480/803) and 27.90% (224/803), significantly higher than those in para-tumor breast tissues (29.89%/0)(χ²=145.011, χ²=260.307, P=0.000). FOXM1 and PLK1 expression were significantly related with the histopathologic grade, lymph node metastasis and pTNM stage, while not correlated with the tumor size. There was a positive relation between the expression of FOXM1 and PLK1 (r=0.414, P < 0.01).

Conclusion FOXM1 and PLK1 may be involved in the breast carcinogenesis and progression synergistically, and they might play important roles in the prognosis evaluation of breast carcinoma.