Annexin A1, A2, A4 and A5 play important roles in breast cancer, pancreatic cancer and laryngeal carcinoma, alone and/or synergistically.

Annexins are associated with metastasis and infiltration of cancer cells. Proteomic analysis and immunohistochemical staining were used to understand whether several annexins play important roles in cancer alone and/or synergistically. Seven fresh breast cancer samples with 23 paraffin specimens, three fresh pancreatic samples and five fresh laryngeal carcinoma samples with 25 paraffin specimens were obtained from humans, as well as ten golden hamster pancreatic cancer tissue samples, and they were used to observe differential expression of annexins compared with normal tissues using proteomics and immunohistochemical staining. Annexin A2, A4 and A5 were overexpressed in human breast cancer and laryngeal carcinoma tissues and in golden hamster pancreatic cancer tissue samples, respectively, as shown by proteomics and immunohistochemical staining. In addition, annexin A4 and A5 were expressed in breast cancer tissues, while annexin A1 was not expressed. Annexin A1, A2 and A4 were expressed in human laryngeal carcinoma tissues as shown by immunohistochemical staining. Annexin A1, A2, A4 and A5 played important roles in breast cancer, pancreatic cancer and laryngeal carcinoma, alone and/or synergistically, and they may be targets of therapy for malignant tumors. The choice of which annexins to target should depend on their respective biological behaviors.