Clinical significance of novel costimulatory molecule B7-H6 in human breast cancer

B7 homolog 6 (B7-H6), a member of the B7 family, is as a cell-surface ligand for natural cytotoxicity triggering receptor 3, which is expressed on natural killer cells. It has previously been reported that B7-H6 is undetectable in normal human tissues but is expressed on tumor cells. However, there are few studies focusing on the clinical significance of B7-H6 expression in human carcinoma, with the exception of three studies on ovarian, lung and gastric cancer. The present study investigated the expression of B7-H6 protein in pathologic tissue samples from 305 patients with breast cancer using immunohistochemistry. A high B7-H6 expression level was identified in tissues from 32.13% of patients with breast cancer. These patients were revealed to also exhibit a high expression level of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2, a shorter survival time and a higher rate of lymph node metastasis. Furthermore, the expression level of B7-H6 was not associated with patient age, breast cancer subtype, tumor size, tumor location or estrogen receptor expression. The results of the present study revealed that higher B7-H6 expression level in breast cancer tissues was positively associated with tumor progression. This indicates that B7-H6 is associated with the progression and immunoevasion of human breast cancer; however, the molecular mechanisms underlying this potential effect require further investigation.