ARID1A: a potential prognostic factor for breast cancer.

The aim of this study is to explore the expression of BAF250a protein in breast cancer and its association with the clinical and pathological characteristics and prognosis of breast cancer. The expression status of BAF250a protein was detected by Western blot analysis and immunohistochemical staining. The relationship between BAF250a proteins and clinicopathological parameters in 496 breast cancer specimens was analyzed. Western blot analysis showed that BAF250a protein had a lower expression in breast cancer specimens than in matched normal breast tissue (104.38 ± 11.65 vs. 55.94 ± 10.27; P = 0.004, t test). Among the 496 enrolled breast cancer patients, BAF250a protein expression was absent in 324 (65.3 %). Universal and multiple analyses indicated that BAF250a protein expression loss was significantly related to histological grade, metastatic nodes, tumor node metastasis (TNM) stage, and the expression of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), c-erbB-2, and p53 (all P < 0.05). For TNM stage, rank correlation coefficients were 0.199 and 0.191, respectively, (P < 0.05), but BAF250a protein deletion had either a positive or a negative correlation with ER, PR, c-erbB-2, and p53 protein expression (correlation coefficients were 0.231, 0.207, -0.098, -0.128; P < 0.05). Analysis of survival rates showed that the patients with BAF250a protein expression attained a significantly better postoperative disease-specific survival than those with BAF250a protein deletion (88.4 vs. 79.0%; P = 0.003). In the Cox regression test, BAF250a protein deletion was detected as an independent prognostic factor (P = 0.014). BAF250a protein might be a new potential target for breast cancer treatment.