Figure 1.

Brachyury mRNA expression in breast carcinoma tissues. A) Real-time polymerase chain reaction was performed for brachyury mRNA on human primary breast tumor tissue cDNAs prepared from 107 invasive ductal adenocarcinomas, six invasive lobular adenocarcinomas, and five mixed ductal/lobular adenocarcinomas. As controls, seven samples of normal breast cDNA originated from seven different individuals were also analyzed, each obtained from a histologically normal section of breast from a patient with cancer or fibrocystic disease. Brachyury mRNA expression is shown for breast primary tumor tissues from stages I to III grouped together (open circles indicate samples further used in the analysis presented in D) (A); breast primary tumor tissues grouped by histological tumor grade (Nottingham grading) (B); and breast primary tumor tissues grouped by estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) expression (P = .03, Fisher exact test, two-sided) (C). D) Real-time polymerase chain reaction was performed for brachyury, TWIST1, SNAIL, and SLUG expression in a subset of 41 breast tumors and seven normal breast tissues.