الفهرس 
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Abstract
Introduction: Breast cancer is the most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women in North America. Worldwide in 2007, an estimated 1,300,000 new cases were reported and approximately 465,000 deaths were attributed to breast cancer. The aetiology of breast cancer is still unknown. A specific aetiological factor may therefore have more influence on one form of breast cancer than another may. Breast cancer is not a single entity; it is a multifactorial disorder where genetic, hormonal, reproductive, environment etc may all play a role. Besides being female, age is the most important risk factor for breast cancer. Incidence rates rise sharply with age until about the age of 45-50, where the rise is less steep and then levels off at age 75-80. The median age at the time of breast cancer diagnosis was 61 years.
Aim of work: The aim of this thesis was to detect the clinic-pathological relationship between expression of Connexin 26(Cx26) and breast cancer.
Patients & Methods: This prospective study included 144 female patients who underwent mastectomy or breast conserving surgery due to invasive breast cancer from January 2008 to January 2012 at Mansoura University Hospital and Oncology Center Mansoura University. Two patients presented by bilateral synchronous breast cancer, so we had 144 patients with 146 tumor specimens. 74 patients with (74 tumors) were Cx26 negative and 70 patients with (72 tumors) were Cx26 positive, we aimed to detect the clinicopathological relationship between expression of Connexin 26(Cx26) and breast cancer.
Results: Cx26 positivity was associated with large sized tumors, clinically palpable axillary lymph nodes, infiltration of more axillary lymph nodes after their pathological examination, advanced tumor stage, high tumor grade and positive lymho-vascular invasion. Also Cx26 positivity might be associated with increase in the overall recurrence and metastasis (bone, brain, liver) except lung metastasis but without statistically significant value.
Conclusion: Cx26 expression might be associated with more aggressive tumors and bad prognosis of patients with breast cancer so it could be used as a useful prognostic factor for breast cancer but this conclusion needs further studies with large sample size in multiple centers, with evaluation of Cx26 in primary tumors, axillary lymph nodes and metastasis to get more significant results.