High mobility group A1 (HMGA1), as a major member of
HMGA family, plays an important part in promotion of cell proliferation and motility, induction of epithelial-mesenchymal transition, and maintenance of stemness, but little is known about the pathological role of HMGA1 in
breast cancer patients. The aim of this study was to identify the pathological roles of HMGA1 in
breast cancer. In our results, we found that
mRNA and
protein expression levels of HMGA1 were markedly higher in
breast cancer tissues than in normal breast tissues. Using immunohistochemistry, high levels of HMGA1
protein were positively correlated with the status of histological grade (I-II
vs. III-IV; P = 0.023), clinical stage (I-II
vs. III-IV; P = 0.008),
tumor size (T1-T2 vs. T3-T4; P = 0.015),
lymph node metastasis (N0-N1 vs. N2-N3; P = 0.002), distant
metastasis (M0 vs. M1; P < 0.001), and
triple-negative breast cancer (No vs. Yes; P = 0.014) of
breast cancer patients. Patients with higher HMGA1 expression had a significantly shorter overall survival time than did patients with low HMGA1 expression. Multivariate analysis indicated that the level of HMGA1 expression was an independent prognostic
indicator (P < 0.001) for the survival of patients with
breast cancer. In conclusion, HMGA1 plays an important role on
breast cancer aggressiveness and prognosis and may act as a promising target for prognostic prediction.