TY - JOUR
T1 - Expression of stemness genes in primary breast cancer tissues
T2 - The role of SOX2 as a prognostic marker for detection of early recurrence
AU - Finicelli, Mauro
AU - Benedetti, Giovanni
AU - Squillaro, Tiziana
AU - Pistilli, Barbara
AU - Marcellusi, Andrea
AU - Mariani, Paola
AU - Santinelli, Alfredo
AU - Latini, Luciano
AU - Galderisi, Umberto
AU - Giordano, Antonio
PY - 2014/1/1
Y1 - 2014/1/1
N2 - The events leading to breast cancer (BC) progression or recurrence are not completely understood and new prognostic markers aiming at identifying high riskpatients and to develop suitable therapy are highly demanded. Experimental evidences found in cancer cells a deregulated expression of some genes involved in governance of stem cell properties and demonstrated a relationship between stemness genes overexpression and poorly differentiated BC subtypes. In the present study 140 primary invasive BC specimens were collected. The expression profiles of 13 genes belonging to the OCT3/SOX2/NANOG/KLF4 core circuitry by RT-PCR were analyzed and any correlation between their expression and the BC clinic-pathological features (CPfs) and prognosis was investigated. In our cohort (117 samples), NANOG, GDF3 and SOX2 significantly correlated with grade 2, Nodes negative status and higher KI67 proliferation index, respectively (p=0.019, p=0.029, p= 0.035). According to multivariate analysis, SOX2 expression resulted independently associated with increased risk of recurrence (HR= 2,99; p= p=0,004) as well as Nodes status (HR=2,44; p=0,009) and T-size >1 (HR=1,77; p=0,035). Our study provides further proof of the suitable use of stemness genes in BC management. Interestingly, a prognostic role of SOX2, which seems to be a suitable marker of early recurrence irrespective of other clinicopathological features.
AB - The events leading to breast cancer (BC) progression or recurrence are not completely understood and new prognostic markers aiming at identifying high riskpatients and to develop suitable therapy are highly demanded. Experimental evidences found in cancer cells a deregulated expression of some genes involved in governance of stem cell properties and demonstrated a relationship between stemness genes overexpression and poorly differentiated BC subtypes. In the present study 140 primary invasive BC specimens were collected. The expression profiles of 13 genes belonging to the OCT3/SOX2/NANOG/KLF4 core circuitry by RT-PCR were analyzed and any correlation between their expression and the BC clinic-pathological features (CPfs) and prognosis was investigated. In our cohort (117 samples), NANOG, GDF3 and SOX2 significantly correlated with grade 2, Nodes negative status and higher KI67 proliferation index, respectively (p=0.019, p=0.029, p= 0.035). According to multivariate analysis, SOX2 expression resulted independently associated with increased risk of recurrence (HR= 2,99; p= p=0,004) as well as Nodes status (HR=2,44; p=0,009) and T-size >1 (HR=1,77; p=0,035). Our study provides further proof of the suitable use of stemness genes in BC management. Interestingly, a prognostic role of SOX2, which seems to be a suitable marker of early recurrence irrespective of other clinicopathological features.
KW - Breast cancer
KW - Gene expression
KW - Recurrence
KW - SOX2
KW - Stemness genes
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84922425839&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.18632/oncotarget.1936
DO - 10.18632/oncotarget.1936
M3 - Article
C2 - 25127259
AN - SCOPUS:84922425839
SN - 1949-2553
VL - 5
SP - 9678
EP - 9688
JO - Oncotarget
JF - Oncotarget
IS - 20
ER -