Affiliations: [a] Department of Thyroid and Breast Surgery, Jinan Military General Hospital of PLA, Jinan, Shandong, China | [b] Zhangjiang Center for Translational Medicine, Shanghai, China
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Qingqing He, Department of Thyroid and Breast Surgery, Jinan Military General Hospital of PLA, No. 25 Shifan Road, Jinan, Shandong, China. Tel.: +86 13789828035; E-mail:heqingqing@yeah.net
Abstract:
BACKGROUND: The molecular classification of breast cancer mainly
focuses on estrogen receptor (ER), Progesterone receptor (PgR), and Human
Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2(HER2/Neu) status detected by
immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis. The β -tubulin isotype III
(TUBB3) gene was thought to be a marker of taxane resistance or cancer
aggressiveness. METHODS: To evaluate the clinicopathological significance of TUBB3
expression in breast cancer patients, we measured TUBB3 mRNA levels in 92
breast cancer patients by Quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain
reaction (qRT-PCR), and examined their correlation with ER, PgR, and HER2
status detected by IHC. RESULTS: We observed a significant positive correlation between the
TUBB3 mRNA expression and the immunohistochemical positivity of both PgR
(p= 0.000) and HER2 (p= 0.001). In addition, TUBB3 mRNA expression was
associated with lymph nodes status (P= 0.008) and tumor stages (0.029), but no
correlation was found with other clinicopathological features, such as age,
pathohistological grades and tumor size. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, TUBB3 expression correlated
significantly with molecular markers of breast cancer, such as PgR and HER2,
suggesting that TUBB3 mRNA level facilitate the identification of a subset
of patients who respond to Taxane treatment in addition to hormonal therapy
and trastuzumab.
Keywords: Breast cancer, ER, PgR, HER2, β -tubulin isotype III
