The Expression and Clinical Significance of Ferroportin and Hepcidin in Breast Cancer Patients

Objective: To investigate the expression of ferroportin (FPN) and hepcidin in tissue from patients with breast cancer, and to evaluate the relationship between FPN and hepcidin expression and clinical features Design: Retrospective study Setting: Department of Hematology and Oncology in Taicang Hospital of Suzhou University, China Subjects: Sixty-four Paraffin tissue blocks obtained from breast cancer patients, who underwent surgical resection during the period, January to December 2009. Intervention : None Main outcome measure: To test FPN and Hepcidin expression in breast cancer by using immunohistochemistry Results: The positive expression rate of FPN was significantly higher in tissue from patients with the luminal A and luminal B types of breast cancer than in the poor prognosis group (75.8% Vs 41.99%; p < 0.05), while the positive expression rate of hepcidin was significantly lower (24.2% vs. 74.2%; p < 0.001). The rate of FPN expression was higher in the estrogen receptor (ER)-positive group than in the ER-negative group (77.4% Vs 42.4%), and the positive rate of hepcidin was lower (22.6%) compared to that of the hepcidin-negative group (72.7%). The expression of hepcidin and FPN was related to the molecular type, expression of the ER/progesterone receptor, and lymph node metastasis, but it was not related to anemia. The expression of hepcidin was negatively correlated with FPN expression (r = -0.41; p < 0.01). Conclusion/s: The expression of hepcidin and FPN in breast cancer tissue was related to the endocrine type, lymph node metastasis, and T stage, but not anemia.