Background: Recently, PEA3 has been reported to suppress HER-2/neu overexpression by promoter activity and thereby inhibit tumorigenesis of breast cancer both in vitro and in vivo.
Methods: The expression of PEA3 and the clinicopathologic features of 89 patients with breast cancer were investigated. The expression of PEA3 was immunohistochemically detected in 42 (47.2%) of 89 patients.
Results: The correlation between the expression of PEA3 and the clinicopathologic features were nil with regard to lymph node metastasis, hormone receptor, blood vessel invasion, and lymphatic vessel invasion. The disease-free survival rate was shorter for the PEA3-negative groups than for the PEA3-positive ones, but with no statistically significant difference. The overall survival rate after surgical resection in patients who were PEA3-positive vs PEA3-negative was 100% vs 87.2%, respectively, at 3 years and 89.8% vs 72.7%, respectively, at 6 years (P =.0472).
Conclusions: The expression of PEA3 in breast cancer might therefore be a novel prognostic factor.