Breast cancer is a common malignant tumor in Korean women. Various oncogenes have been demonstrated in malignant tumor cells. There were many reports on the relationship between the prognosis and the tumor markers, particularly c-erbB-2, p53, bcl-2, and c-myc. However, this relationship is controversial. The aim of this study was to perform immunohistochemical staining for the c-erbB-2, p53, bcl-2, and c-myc antigenic protein in breast cancer patients, to evaluate the expression rate of each antigen, and to compare the correlations with the patients' prognosis.

The medical records of 80 patients who were diagnosed with breast cancer and who were treated with a mastectomy between January 1993 and December 1996 at Soonchunhyang University Chunan Hospital were selected according to the condition of the paraffin block fixation. The prognostic factors were investigated. The immunohistochemical expression of c-erbB-2, p53, bcl-2, and c-myc was examined and compared with the survival rate using a Kaplan-Meier estimate and a log rank test.

Eighty patients (79 females, 1 male) were included in this study, with a mean (SD) age of 48.2 (10.6) years and follow-up duration of 59.9 (24.9) months. The overall mortality was 41.3 (33/80)% and the mean (SD) survival time was 77 (4) months. The overall 5-year survival rate was 63.3%. Among the study variables, the tumor stage was a significant predictor of survival showing a significantly low survival rate in tumor stage III. The tumor size and lymph node metastasis were significantly associated with the survival rate in patients with breast cancer.

c-erbB-2, p53, bcl-2, and c-myc might be useful prognostic factors, even though a statistical significance was not achieved.