Gene expression markers for breast cancer prognosis

1. A method of predicting the likelihood of long-term survival of an ER-negative breast cancer patient without the recurrence of breast cancer, comprising:

(a) isolating RNA from a tissue sample obtained from a breast tumor of the patient;

(b) reverse transcribing an RNA transcript of STMY3 to produce a cDNA of STMY3 using at least one primer comprising a nucleotide sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO:384, SEQ ID NO:385, and SEQ ID NO:386;

(c) amplifying the cDNA of STMY3 to produce an amplicon of the RNA transcript of STMY3;

(d) quantitatively assaying a level of the amplicon of the RNA transcript of STMY3;

(e) normalizing said level against a level of an amplicon of at least one reference RNA transcript in said tissue sample to provide a normalized STMY3 amplicon level;

(f) comparing the normalized STMY3 amplicon level to a normalized STMY3 amplicon level in reference breast tumor samples; and

(g) predicting the likelihood of long-term survival without the recurrence of breast cancer, wherein increased normalized STMY3 amplicon level is indicative of a reduced likelihood of long-term survival without recurrence of breast cancer.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cDNA of STMY3 is amplified by polymerase chain reaction.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of preparing a report indicating that the patient has an increased or decreased likelihood of long-term survival without breast cancer recurrence.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the level of the amplicon of the RNA transcript of STMY3 is represented as a threshold cycle (Ct) value and the normalized STMY3 amplicon level is represented as a normalized Ct value.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reference breast cancer samples comprise at least 40 breast cancer samples.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the tissue sample is a fixed, wax-embedded tissue sample.