Background & objective: Although the researches had verified various kinds of chemotherapic agents can cause the apoptosis of breast cancer cells, but the reports with in vivo data are still scarce. This paper is to investigate whether neoadjuvant chemotherapy could induce tumor cell apoptosis in breast cancer patients, and its effect on cell proliferation.
Methods: Apoptosis index (AI) of tumor cells is assayed by TdT-mediated dUTP nick end labeling(TUNEL) and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) is examined by immunohistochemical labelled streptavidin biotin (ISAB) in 100 beast cancer samples.
Results: Tumor cell AI in neoadjuvant group (mean = 7.47%) was significantly higher than that in control group (mean = 4.83%) (P < 0.01). PCNA positive expression rate in neoadjuvant group (mean = 33.71%) was significantly lower than that in control group (mean = 51.52%) (P < 0.01). There was significant negative association between AI and PCNA in both neoadjuvant chemotherapy group and control group (P < 0.05).
Conclusion: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy could induce tumor cell apoptosis and inhibit tumor cell proliferation in human breast cancer.