Marker | Molecular characteristics | Biological functions relevant to cancera | Clinical relevance to breast cancera | Relation to c-meta | Relation to E-cada |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sdc1 | Cell surface heparan sulphate proteoglycan | Cell and matrix receptor [1] Coreceptor for chemokines, angiogenic and growth factors, and modulator of proteolytic activity [2-4,16,57] | Positive correlation with poor prognosis and tumour angiogenesis [6-8,33] Predictive factor in neoadjuvant chemotherapy [9] | Sdc1 is c-met co-receptor in multiple myeloma [10] | Coordinated regulation and codistribution in mammary tumor cells and epithelial-mesenchymal transition [22-25] β-Catenin responsive progenitor cells depend on Sdc1 [27,28] |
c-met | Transmembrane tyrosine kinase receptor for hepatocyte growth factor | c-met pathway modulates cell dissociation and motility, protease overexpression and stimulates angiogenesis [11,12] | Expression associated with poor outcome in patients with (axillary) lymph node negative breast cancer [15,47,70] Negative prognostic factor in breast cancer [71,72] | Not applicable | Correlation with abnormal β-catenin expression suggests downregulation of E-cad/β-catenin by c-met [73] |
E-cad | Epithelial calcium-dependent cell adhesion molecule | Ensures structural integrity, and contact inhibition of epithelia [21] Expression changes during epithelial-mesenchymal transition [40] Involved in β-catenin-mediated signalling [20] | Membranous staining is independent predictor for disease-free survival in lobular breast cancer [44] Loss of expression is associated with negative ER status, high histological grade, metastasis and poor prognosis in breast cancer [43,45,46,74,75] E-cad is used to distinguish ductal from lobular neopasia [18,19] | (See Sdc1) | Not applicable |