Sperm-associated antigen 9 overexpression correlates with poor prognosis and insensitive to Taxol treatment in breast cancer.

Sperm-associated antigen 9 (SPAG9) has been reported to express in several cancers and have clinical significance. Using immunohistochemistry, we found that there was a strong association among SPAG9 expression and tumor size, TNM stage, histological grade, lymph node metastasis, and recurrence. It suggested that SPAG9-elevated expression was an independently prognostic indicator for both OS and DFS. Furthermore, the selected treatment of chemotherapy with Taxol/non-Taxol significantly affects OS and DFS. To sum up, SPAG9-elevated expression contributes to malignant behavior and poor prognosis of breast cancer and may support a potential indicator in treatment selection.