Over-expression of cyclin A is highly associated with early relapse and reduced survival in patients with primary breast carcinomas

Progression through the mammalian cell cycle is facilitated by cyclin-cyclin-dependent kinase (cdk) complexes, which are activated at specific points during the cell cycle. Alteration in cyclin-cdk complexes may lead to altered cell cycle and tumorigenesis. In this study, we analyzed expression of cyclins A, D1, D3 and E in tumor tissue from 170 patients with primary invasive breast carcinomas. Immunohistochemical methods were used to detect protein expression of these cyclins. We detected positive immunoreactivity in 55 (32%), 22 (13%), 38 (22%) and 37 (21.8%) of the samples for cyclins A, D1, D3 and E, respectively. A highly statistically significant association was observed between expression of cyclin A and early relapse (p = 0.001 univariate analysis, p = 0.006 multivariate analysis) as well as cancer-specific death (p < 0.0001) during the follow-up time. No association was observed between cyclin D1 or cyclin E, respectively, and relapse of disease or survival, while cyclin D3 over-expression was associated with development of metastases during follow-up (p = 0.005 univariate analysis, p = 0.01 multivariate analysis). However, cyclin D3 did not show any statistically significant association when cancer-specific death was examined in a multivariate analysis (Cox regression for survival function). (C) 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.