1. Non-canonical NF-kappa B pathway activation predicts outcome in borderline oestrogen receptor positive breast carcinoma
- Author
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Rojo, F, Gonzalez-Perez, A, Furriol, J, Nicolau, MJ, Ferrer, J, Burgues, O, Sabbaghi, M, Gonzalez-Navarrete, I, Cristobal, I, Serrano, L, Zazo, S, Madoz, J, Servitja, S, Tusquets, I, Albanell, J, Lluch, A, Rovira, A, and Eroles, P
- Subjects
breast cancer ,non-canonical ,NF-kappa B ,ER-positive - Abstract
Background: NF-kappa B signalling appears deregulated in breast tumours. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the non-canonical NF-kappa B pathway, is activated in oestrogen receptor positive (ER+) breast cancer, to identify any correlation between its activity and the clinico-pathological phenotype and to explore whether NF-kappa B2 and RelB subunits and/or any of their target genes might be used as a predictive marker. Methods: Two independent cohorts of ER+ early breast cancer patients treated with adjuvant endocrine therapy were included in the study. Activation of RelB and NF-kappa B2 subunits was determined in a training set of 121 patients by measuring DNA-binding activities in nuclear extracts from fresh frozen specimens by an ELISA-based assay. Samples of 15 ER - breast cancer patients were also included in the study. In a large validation cohort of 207 patients, nuclear immunostaining of RelB and NF-kappa B2 on formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded specimens was performed. Statistical correlation within clinico-pathological factors, disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) was evaluated. Publicly available gene expression and survival data have been interrogated aimed to identify target genes. Results: Activation of NF-kappa B2 and RelB was found in 53.7 and 49.2% of the 121 ER+ tumours analysed, with similar levels to ER - breast tumours analysed in parallel for comparisons. In the validation cohort, we obtained a similar proportion of cases with activation of NF-kappa B2 and RelB (59.9 and 32.4%), with a 39.6% of co-activation. Multiplexing immunofluorescence in breast cancer tissue confirmed an inverse spatial distribution of ER with NF-kappa B2 and RelB nuclear expression in tumour cells. Interestingly, NF-kappa B2 and RelB mRNA expression was inversely correlated with ER gene (ESR1) levels (P
- Published
- 2016