Moreover, the result of the correlation between CXCR4, CCR7, EGFR, and HER-2/neu illustrates that the expression of chemokine receptors (CXCR4 and CCR7) is tightly associated with growth factors (EGFR and HER-2/neu).

Based on this finding, it may be inferred that regulating growth factors may EPZ004777 influence the expression of chemokine receptors, which may be helpful in identifying new pathways in breast cancer therapy. This study was based on a small group of patients. However, it examined corresponding lymph nodes of each patient, and this has not been reported by other scholars to date. Although immunochemistry detection of the biomarkers may have certain limitations, it is a simple and widely utilized technique which can be carried out Apoptosis inhibitor on routine paraffin-embedded tissues. By contrast, majority of new biological methods require specialized platforms and expertise that are considered impractical in routine pathological diagnosis. Conclusion By examining the expression of chemokines and their receptors in both primary tumors and corresponding lymph node metastasis tumors, data indicate that chemokines and their receptors are differentially expressed in the primary and metastatic sites of breast cancer. Results reveal the significant association of CXCR4, CCR7, and EGFR

with metastasis Momelotinib and poor prognosis. Further, the correlation between

chemokine receptors and growth factors may provide a new method of understanding breast cancer metastasis and therapy, which are worthy of further study. Acknowledgements The work was supported by grants from the Tianjin Natural Science Foundation (Nos.06YFJMJC08000 and 09ZCZDSF04400), as well as a grant from a key project of the Natural Science Foundation of China (No.30830049). Materials were obtained from the Department of Pathology of Tianjin Medical University’s General Hospital. References 1. Hassan S, Baccarelli A, Salvucci O, Basik M: Plasma stromal cell derived factor-1: host derived marker predictive of distant metastasis in breast cancer. Clin Cancer Res 2008, 14:446–454.PubMedCrossRef 2. Müller A, Homey B, Soto H, Ge N, Catron D, Buchanan ME, Amylase McClanahan T, Murphy E, Yuan W, Wagner SN, Barrera JL, Mohar A, Verástegui E, Zlotnik A: Involvement of chemokine receptors in breast cancer metastasis. Nature 2001, 410:50–56.PubMedCrossRef 3. Paget S: The distribution of secondary growths in cancer of the breast. Cancer Metastasis Rev 1989, 8:98–101.PubMed 4. Hassan S, Ferrario C, Saragovi U, Quenneville L, Gaboury L, Baccarelli A, Salvucci O, Basik M: The influence of tumor-host interactions in the stromal cell-derived factor-1/CXCR4 ligand/receptor axis in determining metastatic risk in breast cancer. Am J Pathol 2009, 175:66–73.PubMedCrossRef 5.