Abstract
The expression of the protease cathepsin-D has been evaluated using an immunohistochemical technique with a polyclonal antibody in paraffin-embedded tissue from 359 patients treated between the years 1975-1981 for Stage I and II breast cancer. One hundred and twenty seven patients (35%) have strongly positive, granular staining, 138 (38%) are intermediately stained in the cytoplasm, and in 94 (26%) no staining is observed. There is a strong positive association between expression of cathepsin-D and the presence of tumour in axillary lymph nodes (P < 0.006). Expression of the protease is associated with significantly poorer survival of patients in univariate analysis (P = 0.025); however, this is not independent of other tumour variables.
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Winstanley, J., Leinster, S., Cooke, T. et al. Prognostic significance of cathepsin-D in patients with breast cancer. Br J Cancer 67, 767–772 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1038/bjc.1993.139
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/bjc.1993.139
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