st6gal1, cox-2 and hb-egf mrna expression in breast cancer samples from kashan, iran

background : st6gal1, cox-2 and hb-egf genes are involved in different tumors and their enhanced expressions often correlate with poor prognosis. in this study we assay the expressions of these genes by reverse transcriptase-pcr in 54 breast cancer samples. methods : tissue samples were either formalin-fixed for histopathological examination or frozen for reverse transcriptase-pcr. image program was used for the densitometry of the image of the gels and the expression of different genes was normalized with beta actin expression. the student's t-test and correlation matrix were used for data analyses. results : we observed significantly higher expressions of st6gal1 (p= 0.040), cox- 2 (p= 0.001) and hb-egf (p= 0.009) in the tumor region compared to the margin samples. a significant correlation was found between hb-egf and cox-2 expression (p= 0.001). there was a positive correlation between total score, tumor size, histology grade and nuclear grade but there was a reverse correlation between age and tumor size, histology grade and total score. conclusion : expressions of st6gal1, cox-2 and hb-egf in breast tumor samples in this and a number of other studies emphasize their role as important markers in breast cancer . the use of medications to inhibit either their individual expressions or the possible inhibition of all three genes may improve patient survival and prevent metastasis.