Objective  c-Src is reported to be critical for breast cancer progression.However, few reports have been published on the prognostic value of c-Src in breast cancer.The present study aims to explore c-Src expression and to evaluate its effects on the prognosis of metastatic breast cancer(MBC).

  Methods  Paraffin-embedded primary tumor tissue sections from 102 MBC patients were collected consecutively from January 2007 to October 2010.Immunohistochemical staining was conducted to determine c-Src expression. Clinical data during the follow up after 7 to 143(median, 40) months after final diagnosis were analyzed in retrospect.Survival analysis and the Cox proportional hazards model were used to explore the prognostic value of c-Src expression in breast cancer.

  Results  The c-Src expression rate in 102 MBC patients was 54.9%.The c-Src expression rate was significantly higher among breast cancer patients with a progression-free survival(PFS) of less than 3 years(P=0.048).The survival analysis clearly indicated that patients with positive c-Src expression had poor disease-specific survival(DSS) compared with those with negative expression(P= 0.017).The stratified analysis demonstrated that c-Src expression showed a significantly poor DSS(P=0.016) in estrogen receptor/ progesterone receptor-positive patients.No significant differences in DSS were observed(P=0.904) among HR-negative patients. The multivariate analysis indicates that HR+/c-Src+ expression and the histologic grading of tumors and age below 35 years are the independent predictors of DSS for MBC patients.

  Conclusion  A positive hormone receptor plus HR+/c-Src+ expression predicts a poor prognosis in MBC patients.