Expression of ERβ in Breast Cancer and Relationship with Clinicopathological Factors

Objective 　To investigate the expression of ERβ in breast cancer and the relationship with clinicopathological factors. Methods 　The expressions of ERβ, ERα,VEGF and c-erbB2 were studied on 327 samples by immunohistochemistry. The relationships between them and the clinicopathological parameters such as menopause station, tumor size, TNM stage, grading and lymph node metastasis were analyzed. Results 　The positive rates of ERβ in breast cancer (20. 49 %, 67/ 327) were related to the expressions of VEGF and c-erbB2 ( r = 0. 564, P = 0. 000 ; r = 0. 288, P = 0. 000), but were irrelevant with the expressions of ERα( r = - 0. 051, P = 0. 137) . The expressions of ERβ in those with more than 3 metastatic axillary lymph nodes (31. 8 %) were higher than those with 3 or less than 3 metastatic axillary lymph nodes (χ² =6. 369, P = 0. 012) and those without metastatic nodes (χ² = 4. 436, P = 0. 035) . No significance was found between the last two groups (χ² = 0. 744, P = 0. 388) . Conclusion 　The expression of ERβwas related to the development of breast cancer to some extent and it can be an important marker to evaluate the histological behavior of breast cancer.