Expression and clinical significance of extracellular matrix protein 1 and vascular endothelial growth factor-C in lymphatic metastasis of human breast cancer

Table 6 Correlations between ECM1 expression and clinicopathological characteristics

Clinicopathological characteristics	N	ECM1 positive		P	ECM1 mRNA expression	P
		N	rate (%)
Age (years)
< 60	30	22	73.3		1.54 ± 0.43
≥ 60	11	9	81.8	0.700	0.68 ± 0.46	0.183
Histological grade (invasive ductal)
I+II	16	12	75.0		1.76 ± 0.71
III+IV	20	16	80.0	0.720	1.18 ± 0.39	0.483
Tumor size
T1	15	10	66.7		1.49 ± 0.60
T2	23	19	82.6		1.34 ± 0.46
T3	3	2	66.7	0.512	0.11 ± 0.08	0.275
Lymph nodal status
N0	22	16	72.7		1.48 ± 0.54
N1	12	10	83.3		1.32 ± 0.58
N2	5	3	60.0		0.81 ± 0.60
N3	2	2	100	0.121	0.54 ± 0.50	0.424
Estrogen receptor status
-	10	5	50.0		1.02 ± 0.62
+~+++	31	26	83.9	0.045*	1.40 ± 0.41	0.611
Progesterone receptor status
-	8	4	50.0		1.32 ± 0.90
+~+++	33	27	81.8	0.082	1.30 ± 0.37	0.987
HER2/neu score
- (0-1)	13	11	84.6		1.48 ± 0.69
+ (2-3)	28	20	71.4	0.458	1.23 ± 0.39	0.757

"+", "++" and "+++" for ECM1 immunochemistry staining was all grouped together as "+"
* P < 0.05 is considered statistically significant

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