Table 2. Relationship between ME2 expression and clinicopathological indicators in breast cancer.

Variables	No. of patients examined	Expression of ME2 protein [n (%)]		χ2	P
		High (N=63)	Low (N=37)
ME2, malic enzyme 2; ER, estrogen receptor; PR, progesterone receptor; HER-2, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2.
Age (year)				1.401	0.166
<50	60	35 (58.3)	25 (41.7)
≥50	40	28 (70.0)	12 (30.0)
T staging				1.120	0.200
Tis+T1	34	19 (55.9)	15 (44.1)
T2+T3	66	44 (66.7)	22 (33.3)
Lymph node metastasis				5.405	0.016
No	58	31 (53.4)	27 (46.6)
Yes	42	32 (76.2)	10 (23.8)
Pathological staging				4.118	0.033
0+I+IIA	60	33 (55.0)	27 (45.0)
IIB+III	40	30 (75.0)	10 (25.0)
Vascular cancer embolus				5.596	0.014
No	83	48 (57.8)	35 (42.2)
Yes	17	15 (88.2)	2 (11.8)
ER status				0.018	0.530
Negative	37	23 (62.2)	14 (37.8)
Positive	63	40 (63.5)	23 (36.5)
PR status				2.581	0.081
Negative	40	29 (72.5)	11 (27.5)
Positive	60	34 (56.7)	26 (43.3)
HER-2 status				0.429	0.807
Negative	42	25 (59.5)	17 (40.5)
Positive	36	24 (66.7)	12 (33.3)
Not available	22	14 (63.6)	8 (36.4)
Ki67 index (%)				0.249	0.395
≤14	24	14 (58.3)	10 (41.7)
>14	75	48 (64.0)	27 (36.0)