With the advent of microarray expression profiling over a decade ago, many new biomarkers have been identified for ER+ breast cancers, such as the transcription factors GATA-3 and XBP-1. A recent paper* identified a novel biomarker for triple-negative (ER- PR- HER2-) breast cancer. RUNX1 is a transcription factor that is the most frequently mutated gene in human leukemia, and the RUNX family plays essential roles in haematopoiesis, osteogenesis and neurogenesis.
In this report, the authors utilized a tissue microarray continaing biopsies from 483 patients with invasive ductal breast adenocarcinoma. The microarray was stained with antibodies for immunihistochemistry. RUNX1 immunostaining was signficantly asociated with pooere cancer-specific survival in patients with ER-negative and triple-negative breast cancer. However, RUNX1 was associated with progesterone receptor positive tumors as well, which is a bit confounding. Interestinlgly, RUNX1 was associated with more CD4+ and CD8+ T-lymphocyte infiltration and CD68+ macrophage infiltration, which have been observed as markers for poor prognosis in breast cancer patients.
Triple negative breast cancer is an unmet medical need and lacks suitable biomarkers for patient stratification. RUNX1 may be used as a biomarker and prognostic indicator correlating with poor prognosis specifically in the triple negative subtype of human breast cancer.
Hosein Kouros-Mehr
*Citation: Ferrari N, Mohammed ZMA, Nixon C, Mason SM, Mallon E, et al. (2014) Expression of RUNX1 Correlates with Poor Patient Prognosis in Triple Negative Breast Cancer. PLoS ONE 9(6): e100759. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0100759
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