The Value of FAK and SLUG Expression in Patients with Breast Carcinoma and Relation of Their Expression to Clinicopathological and Prognostic Parameters

Background: Although there is marked improvement in breast carcinoma (BC) management, it is still the leading cause of cancer death in middle-aged and old females, which leads to emergence of many studies about recent prognostic biomarkers that aimed to discover new therapeutic targets for BC. Focal adhesion kinase (FAK) is a member of protein tyrosine kinase (PTK) family. Slug is a member of the Snail family that is a C2H2-type zinc-finger transcription factor and plays an essential role in Epithelialmesenchymal transition [EMT] process activation in cancer. Our study aimed: To evaluate FAK and SLUG expressions in BC, to correlate their expressions with differentiation, invasiveness, metastatic potential of such type of cancer in addition to correlation with recurrence free and overall survival rates of female patients with breast cancer. Methods: We have assessed FAK and SLUG expressions in sections from 50 paraffin blocks of breast carcinoma using immunohistochemistry. We analysed correlations between their levels of expressions, clinic-pathological and prognostic criteria of our BC patients. Results: FAK and SLUG positive expression in breast carcinoma was related to positive expression in breast carcinoma was significantly correlated with aggressive molecular subtypes as HER2 amplified and triple negative subtypes, presence of lymph node metastases, high KI67 index, presence of distant metastasis (p<0.001 for all of them), negative ER & PR (p= 0.08), The expression of both markers was significantly positively correlated with each other (p<0.001). FAK and SLUG positive expression in breast carcinoma was associated with shortened recurrence free and overall survival rates (p<0.00). Conclusion: FAK and SLUG are markers of poor prognosis of breast carcinoma patients.