To investigate the relation of CerbB-2 with Ki-67 and P53 expressions in hormone-independent breast cancer.A total of 180 patients with breast cancer were examined for the positivity to estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR), and subsequently divided into hormone-dependent group (positive for both ER and PR) and hormone-independent group (negative for both). CerbB-2, Ki-67 and P53 expressions were detected in these patients using an improved Envision immunohistochemical staining with the corresponding antibodies. Twenty-nine patients without definite immunohistochemical results of C-erbB-2 were excluded from further analysis. The 51 hormone-independent and 100 hormone-dependent cases were analyzed for the correlation of CerbB-2 to Ki-67 and P53 expressions.In hormone-independent cases negative for CerbB-2, Ki-67 and P53 expressions were significantly higher than that in hormone-dependent CerbB-2-negative cases (P0.05) with respect to hormonal dependence.In hormone-independent CerbB-2-negative cases, the tumor cells show a higher proliferative activity and P53 expression than those in hormone-dependent cases, which can be an important reason for the high malignancy and poor prognosis of hormone-independent breast cancer negative for CerbB-2.