Elevated Hu-Antigen Receptor (HuR) Expression is Associated with Tumor Aggressiveness and Poor Prognosis but not with COX-2 Expression in Invasive Breast Carcinoma Patients

Hu-antigen R (HuR), a RNA-binding protein, is considered to play a crucial role in tumor development and progression by stabilizing or regulating a group of cellular mRNAs of cancer-related genes, such as cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2). The present study aimed to evaluate the clinical significance of HuR and COX-2 expression in invasive breast carcinoma. HuR and COX-2 protein expression was assessed immunohistochemically on paraffin-embedded breast cancer tissue sections obtained from 121 patients and was statistically analyzed with clinicopathological parameters, estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), as well as with tumor cells’ proliferative capacity and overall and disease-free patients’ survival. High HuR expression was positively associated with larger tumor size and advanced disease stage ( p = 0.0234 and p = 0.0361, respectively), being more frequently observed in ER negative cases ( p = 0.0208). High COX-2 expression was negatively associated with histological ( p