Expression of BAG-1 in invasive breast carcinomas

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to retrospectively evaluate the expr ession of BAG-1 in invasive breast carcinomas; The intensity and subcellula r distribution of BAG-1 expression was correlated with conventional prognos tic factors and with disease-free and overall survival. Patients and Methods: One hundred forty patients diagnosed with invasive br east cancer in St. John's, Newfoundland, between 1986 and 1996 were include d in the study. The median follow-up of the study was 8 years. Expression o f BAG-1 was determined by immuno-histochemical staining of paraffin-embedde d breast tumor tissues. Result's: Of the 140 breast carcinomas examined, 77.1% were positive for BA G-1 expression. Except for differentiation, no correlation wets observed be tween BAG-1 expression and conventional prognostic factors such as age, his tology, stage, and estrogen and progesterone receptor status. In multivaria te analysis, BAG-1 expression was significantly associated with shorter dis ease-free (P = .0052) and overall survival (P = .0033). patients whose tumo rs expressed nuclear BAG-1 tended ta have a shorter disease-free (63 v 84 m onths; P = 0.4493) and overall (69 v 99 months, P = .1009) survival. Conclusion: BAG-1 is overexpressed in the majority of invasive breast carci nomas. Although BAG-1 did not correlate with conventianal prognostic factor s, its overexpression, especially the nuclear expression, may be associated with a shorter disease-free and overall survival. Our preliminary data str ongly indicate that further investigation is warranted to define the role o f BAG-1 as an independent prognostic factor in patients with newly diagnose d breast cancer. (C) 1999 by American Society of Clinical Oncology.