OBJECTIVETo investigate the expression of Twist, E-cadherin and N-cadherin in breast carcinoma tissue and to analyse their effects on the breast carcinoma differentiation, size, infiltration and metastasis of the breast carcinoma.

METHODSThe expression of Twist, E-cadherin and N-cadherin in 56 cases of breast invasive ductal carcinoma, 38 cases of invasive lobular carcinoma, 41 cases of carcinoma in situ and 10 cases of normal breast tissue was detected using immunohistochemistry.

RESULTS(1) The expression rate of Twist in three types of breast carcinoma was 46.4% (26/56), 79.0% (30/38) and 26.8% (11/41) respectively, and the expression of Twist in invasive lobular carcinoma was significantly higher than that in invasive ductal carcinoma and carcinoma in situ (P = 0.002, P = 0.000). The expression rate of E-cadherin in three types of breast carcinoma was 78.6% (44/56), 29.0% (11/38) and 80.5% (33/41) respectively, and the expression of E-cadherin in invasive ductal carcinoma and carcinoma in situ was significantly higher than that in invasive lobular carcinoma (P = 0.000, P = 0.000). The expression rate of N-cadherin in three types of breast carcinoma was 53.6% (30/56), 68.4% (26/38) and 31.7% (13/41) respectively, and the expression of N-cadherin in invasive ductal carcinoma and invasive lobular carcinoma was significantly higher than that in carcinoma in situ (P = 0.033, P = 0.001). (2) In all the 135 cases, the expression of Twist was not correlated with that of E-cadherin (P = 0.005, Spearman correlation coefficient = -0.239), however, there was a positive correlation between the expression of Twist and N-cadherin and statistically significant(P = 0.000, Spearman correlation coefficient = 0.319). (3) In the invasive ductal carcinoma, the expression of N-cadherin in poorly-differentiated carcinoma was significantly higher than that of the moderately-or well-differentiated ones (P = 0.004). (4) In the invasive lobular carcinoma, the expression of Twist in cases with lymph node metastasis was significantly higher than that of cases without metastasis (P = 0.037).

CONCLUSIONSTwist, E-cadherin and N-cadherin have different expression patterns in the three kinds of breast carcinoma. The positive expression of Twist was correlated to lymph node metastasis in invasive lobular carcinoma and the positive expression of N-cadherin was correlated to cell the tissue differentiation in invasive ductal carcinoma. Detection of the expression of these biomarkers may provide a valuable reference for the study of breast carcinoma progression, metastasis and for the judgment of the biological behavior of the carcinoma.