Objective   To investigate the expression of the apoptosis inhibitor Livin and its correlations in the prognosis of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC).

  Methods   The expression of Livin was determined by immunohistochemical Streptavidin-Peroxidase method in 90 cases with TNBC, 35 with paraneoplastic tissues, and 10 with normal tissues. The Cox model analysis was estab- lished using clinico-pathological features and follow-up data.

  Results  The positive expression of Livin was 57.8% in the TNBC tissues and 34.3 % in the paraneoplastic breast tissues. No Livin expression was observed in all 10 normal tissues, indicating the absence of statistical significance among the groups (P < 0.05). The expression of Livin was significantly correlated with clinical stage, lymph-vascu- lar invasion, and axillary lymph node metastasis (P < 0.05). The expression of Livin did not show correlations with the patient's age, tumor size, family history of breast cancer, and histologic grade (P > 0.05). The plotted survival curves by the Kaplan - Meier method dem- onstrated that disease-free survival and overall survival were significantly better in patients with low expression than in patients with high expression of Livin protein. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that age, clinical stage, lymph-vascular invasion, and ax- illary lymph node metastasis were independent risk factors affecting the five-year disease-free rate of the patients, whereas clinical stage and axillary lymph node metastasis were independent risk factors affecting the five-year overall rate of the patients. The Livin pro- tein was then rejected.

  Conclusion   The abnormal expression of Livin is related to the development and prognosis of TNBC, suggesting that the expression of Livin may be used as one of the indicators in determining the progress and prognosis of TNBC.