Abstract: AIM: To investigate the expression of insulin-like growth factor binding protein-2 (IGFBP-2) in breast cancer and its connection with clinical pathological characteristics of breast cancer as well as the correlation between IGFBP-2 expression and estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR).METHODS: Examined the expression of IGFBP-2, ER and PR in 42 cases of the breast carcinomas with the immunohistochemical technique(S-Pmethod).RESULTS: There was no significant difference between the primary tumor extension, age and category in breast cancer (P>0.05);the positive percentage of IGFBP-2 was statistically higher in breast cancer with metastasis in lymph node than those without metastasis in lymph node (P<0.05).The expression of IGFBP-2 in breast cancer is midrange positive correlation with that of ER (P<0.01, r_s =0.486) , and it is not connected with expression of PR in breast cancer (P>0.05, r_s =0.271).CONCLUSION: The expression of IGFBP-2 may play an important role in the progression,invasion and metastasis of breast cancer, and there is a positive correlation between the expression of IGFBP-2 and ER in breast cancer.It demonstrates that over expression of IGFBP-2 may be a reference to evaluate unfavourable prognosis of breast cancer.

Key words: breast cancer, insulin-like growth factor binding protein-2, estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor