Clinicopathological and prognostic significance of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) in breast cancers.

Background: Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) are signalling transduction molecules that have different functions and diverse behaviour in cancer. In breast cancer, MAPK is related to oestrogen receptor (ER) and HER2.

Methods: Protein expression of a large panel of MAPKs (JNK1/2, ERK, p38, C-JUN and ATF2 including phosphorylated forms) were assessed immunohistochemically in a large (n = 1400) and well-characterised breast cancer series prepared as tissue microarray.

Clinical utility of reverse phase protein array for molecular classification of breast cancer.

Reverse Phase Protein Array (RPPA) represents a sensitive and high-throughput technique allowing simultaneous quantitation of protein expression levels in biological samples. This study aimed to confirm the ability of RPPA to classify archival formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) breast cancer tissues into molecular classes used in the Nottingham prognostic index plus (NPI+) determined by immunohistochemistry (IHC). Proteins were extracted from FFPE breast cancer tissues using three extraction protocols: the Q-proteome FFPE Tissue Kit (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany) and two in-house methods using Laemmli buffer with either incubation for 20 min or 2 h at 105 °C.