Clinical implications of the coexpression of SRC1 and NANOG in HER-2-overexpressing breast cancers

OBJECTIVE: Given the lack of clarity on the expression status of SRC1 protein in breast cancer, we attempted to ascertain the clinical implications of the expression of this protein in breast cancer. METHODS: Samples from 312 breast cancer patients who were followed up for 5 years were analyzed in this study. The associations of SRC1 expression and clinicopathological factors with the prognosis of breast cancer were determined. RESULTS: The 312 breast cancer patients underwent radical resection, and 155 (49.68%) of them demonstrated high expression of SRC1 protein. No significant differences were found for tumor size, estrogen receptor expression, or progesterone receptor expression (P=0.191, 0.888, or 0.163, respectively). It is noteworthy that SRC1 expression was found to be related to HER-2 and Ki-67 expression (P=0.044 and P=0.001, respectively). According to logistic regression analysis, SRC1 expression was also significantly correlated with Ki-67 and HER-2 expression (P=0.032 and P=0.001, respectively). Survival analysis showed that patients with a high expression of SRC1 and NANOG and those with SRC1 and NANOG coexpression had significantly poorer postoperative disease-specific survival than those with no expression in the HER-2-positive group (P=0.032, 0.01, and P=0.01, respectively). CONCLUSION: High SRC1 protein expression was related to the prognosis of HER-2-overexpressing breast cancers.