Associations of MARS expression with clinical characteristics and selected biological markers of BC
| Characteristics | N | MARS expression (%) | χ2 | P value | |
| Low or no | High | ||||
| Age (years) | 0.412 | 0.814 | |||
| ≤40 | 27 | 12 (44.4) | 15 (55.6) | ||
| 40–60 | 75 | 31 (41.3) | 44 (58.7) | ||
| ≥60 | 40 | 19 (47.5) | 21 (52.5) | ||
| Tumour size (cm) | 0.810 | 0.368 | |||
| ≤2 | 61 | 24 (39.3) | 37 (60.7) | ||
| >2 | 81 | 38 (46.9) | 43 (53.1) | ||
| Tumour grade | 8.506 | 0.014* | |||
| I | 32 | 19 (59.4) | 13 (40.6) | ||
| II | 63 | 30 (47.6) | 33 (52.4) | ||
| III | 47 | 13 (27.7) | 34 (72.3) | ||
| ER status | 0.591 | 0.442 | |||
| Negative | 39 | 15 (38.5) | 24 (61.5) | ||
| Positive | 103 | 47 (45.6) | 56 (54.3) | ||
| PR status | 1.427 | 0.232 | |||
| Negative | 63 | 24 (38.1) | 39 (61.9) | ||
| Positive | 79 | 38 (48.1) | 41 (51.9) | ||
| HER-2 status | 6.962 | 0.008* | |||
| Negative | 98 | 50 (51.0) | 48 (49.0) | ||
| Positive | 44 | 12 (27.3) | 32 (72.2) | ||
| Ki-67 (%) | 5.938 | 0.015* | |||
| <20 | 66 | 36 (54.5) | 30 (45.5) | ||
| ≥20 | 76 | 26 (34.2) | 50 (65.8) | ||
| Molecular classification | 10.565 | 0.014* | |||
| Luminal A | 40 | 26 (65.0) | 14 (35.0) | ||
| Luminal B | 63 | 21 (33.3) | 42 (66.7) | ||
| HER-2 overexpression | 13 | 5 (38.5) | 8 (61.5) | ||
| TNBC | 26 | 10 (38.5) | 16 (61.5) | ||
| Histological types | 0.430 | 0.806 | |||
| Ductal | 113 | 50 (44.2) | 63 (55.8) | ||
| Lobular | 15 | 7 (46.7) | 8 (53.3) | ||
| Others | 14 | 5 (35.7) | 9 (64.3) | ||
| N stage | 5.054 | 0.025* | |||
| N0 | 65 | 35 (53.8) | 30 (46.2) | ||
| N1+2+3 | 77 | 27 (35.1) | 50 (64.9) | ||
| TNM stage | 8.043 | 0.018* | |||
| Stage I | 40 | 25 (62.5) | 15 (37.5) | ||
| Stage II | 60 | 22 (36.7) | 38 (63.3) | ||
| Stages III and IV | 42 | 15 (35.7) | 27 (64.3) | ||
*P<0.05.
BC, breast cancer; ER, oestrogen receptor; HER-2, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2; MARS, methionyl–tRNA synthetase; PR, progesterone receptor; TNM, tumour, node, metastasis.