Background: Heat shock protein 27 (hsp27) is a molecular chaperone which supports cells to keep their homeostasis under stressful conditions. It is associated with resistance to chemotherapeutics, radiation and hyperthermia. The aim of this retrospective study was to investigate the prognostic value of hsp27 for patients with node-negative breast cancer.
Materials and methods: Paraffin sections of 191 patients were stained immunohistochemically with a monoclonal antibody against hsp27. Median follow-up was 177 months. The results were correlated with clinical and histopathological parameters using the Chi-square test.
Results: There was no significant correlation between hsp27 expression and standard histopathological features or the proliferation marker ki-67. Disease-free survival (DFS) was not altered for patients expressing hsp27-positive tumors, whereas overall survival (OS) [p=0. 02] and survival after first recurrence (SR) [p=0.01] were significantly decreased.
Conclusion: The expression of hsp27 in primary breast cancers is associated with a short survival for node-negative patients.