Table 1.

Association between CXCL12, CXCR4, and CXCR7 mRNA expression and clinicopathological features of breast cancer

Variables	CXCL12 expression			CXCR4 expression			CXCR7 expression
	Low (n)	High (n)	P value	Low (n)	High (n)	P value	Low (n)	High (n)	P value
Age (years)			0.545			0.386			0.457
<50	28	26		26	28		26	28
≥50	32	29		28	33		32	29
Tumor size (cm)			0.483			0.542			0.613
D≤2	18	22		20	20		19	21
2<D≤5	34	28		29	33		33	29
D>5	8	5		5	8		6	7
Histological grades			0.216			0.437			0.189
Well/Moderate	35	27		31	31		28	34
Poor	25	28		23	30		30	23
TNM stagea			0.392			0.184			0.064
I-II	39	40		44	35		36	43
III-IV	21	15		10	26		22	14
Lymph node metastasis			0.001			0.022			0.006
Negative	24	26		28	22		31	19
Positive	36	29		26	39		23	42
No. of lymph node excised			0.491			0.367			0.513
N≤3	13	11		12	12		9	15
3<N≤9	36	31		32	35		33	34
N≥10	11	13		10	14		12	12
ER			0.432			0.344			0.692
Negative	37	29		33	33		31	35
Positive	23	26		21	28		23	26
PR			0.281			0.081			0.096
Negative	32	35		37	30		29	38
Positive	28	20		17	31		29	19
HER-2			0.044			0.009			0.005
Negative	36	27		35	28		37	26
Positive	24	28		19	33		21	31
CA15-3 (U/ml)			0.096			0.335			0.218
<25	23	25		24	24		22	26
≥25	37	30		30	37		36	31

^aTNM staging was classified according to the 7^th edition of the AJCC cancer staging manual.

n, number of patients; D, diameter, N, number of lymph node excised; ER, estrogen receptor; PR, progesterone receptor; HER-2, human epidermal growth factor receptor-2.