This study aims to explore the expression of stanniocalcin 2 (STC2) gene in breast cancer and its clinical significance. Female patients with breast cancer from Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University admitted during March 2014 to October 2014 were enrolled in this study. All the tissues used in this experiment included 50 cases of breast cancer tissues and corresponding 50 cases of paracancer normal breast tissues with complete patients' information. The real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) was applied to detect the expression of STC2 gene in 50 cases of breast cancer and paracancer normal breast tissues. The results showed that the expression level of STC2 gene in 50 cases of breast cancer tissues was significantly higher than that in paracancer normal breast tissues (P<0.001). The expression of STC2 gene was correlated with lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, TNM stage and histological grade (P<0.001). The expression level of STC2 gene was significantly higher in breast cancer tissues with higher expression of Ki-67 (P<0.001). The expression level of STC2 gene was significantly higher in estrogen receptor (ER) positive breast cancer tissues than in ER negative ones (P<0.001). However, different groups of age, pathological type, tumor size, PR expression and human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2) expression did not show significant differences in STC2 expression (P>0.05). In conclusion, the abnormal overexpression of STC2 gene may play a role in the development and progression of breast cancer, and it can be used as an independent metastasis and prognostic factor of breast cancer. In addition, STC2 gene probably promotes the development and metastasis of breast cancer by interacting with estrogen and ER, and it may become a new direction for breast cancer endocrine therapy.
Keywords: breast cancer; metastasis; real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction; stanniocalcin 2.