The prognostic value of tumor-associated carbohydrate structures correlated with gene amplifications in human breast carcinomas.

The effects of cell surface sugar chains combined with certain gene amplifications of breast cancers on the prognosis of patients were studied and the relationships between the sugar chains of cancer cells and amplifications of the proto-oncogenes c-myc, int-2 and c-erb B-2, evaluated. One hundred and fifty three human breast carcinoma tissues were investigated by an immunohistochemical technique using the avidinbiotin-peroxidase method with 1 lectin (HPA; Helix Pomatia) and 4 monoclonal antibodies (B-72-3, St-439, anti-Tn and anti-T). The positive rates of HPA, St-439, B-72-3, anti-Tn and anti-T were 43 per cent (63/153), 52 per cent (80/153), 53 per cent (81/153), 64 per cent (98/153) and 89 per cent (136/153), respectively. Patients whose cancers had positive HPA staining were found to have a lower survival rate than those with negative HPA staining (p less than 0.05), whereas those whose cancers had positive St-439 staining showed a better prognosis than those with negative St-439 staining (p less than 0.01). The positive rate of HPA was related to the gene amplification of c-myc proto-oncogene (p less than 0.01), whereas the negative rate of St-439 was correlated with the gene amplification of c-erb B-2 (p less than 0.01). These data indicate the prognostic value of HPA and St-439 and also the relationships between the gene amplifications and carbohydrate structures in breast cancer cells.