Guillermo Prado-Vázquez, Angelo Gámez-Pozo, Cristina Chiva, M. Ferrer-Gomez, Rocío López-Vacas, Cesar Mendiola, Eduard Sabidó, Luis Manso, Andrea Zapater-Moros, Enrique Espinosa, Eva Ciruelos, Katerin Rojas L, Lucía Trilla-Fuertes, Juan Manuel Sepúlveda, and Juan Ángel Fresno Vara
Background: Breast cancer (BC) is the most frequent tumour in women. Triple negative tumours (TNBC)–which are associated with minor survival rates—lack markers predictive of response to anticancer drugs. Triple negative tumours frequently metastasise to the central nervous system (CNS). Objective: The main objective of this study was to study differences in tumour protein expression between patients with CNS metastases and those without this kind of spread, and propose new biomarkers. Methods: A retrospective study was performed. Targeted proteomics and statistical analyses were used to identify possible biomarkers. Results: Proteins were quantified by a targeted proteomics approach and protein expression data were successfully obtained from 51 triple negative formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded samples. ISG15, THBS1 and AP1M1 were identified as possible biomarkers related with CNS metastasis development. Conclusions: Three possible biomarkers associated with CNS metastases in TNBC tumours were identified: ISG15, THBS1 and AP1M1. They may become markers predicting the appearance of CNS infiltration in triple negative BC. This study was funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spanish Economy and Competitiveness Ministry, Spain and by the FEDER programme, ‘Una forma de hacer Europa’ (PI12/01016, PI12/00444 and PI15/01310). LT-F is supported by the Spanish Economy and Competitiveness Ministry (DI-15-07614). GP-V is supported by Consejería de Educación, Juventud y Deporte of Comunidad de Madrid (IND2017/BMD7783). The Centre of Genomics Regulation/Universitat Pompeu Fabra Proteomics Unit is part of the ‘Plataforma de Recursos Biomoleculares y Bioinformáticos (ProteoRed)’ supported by a grant of Instituto de Salud Carlos III and Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (PT13/0001). We acknowledge the support of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, ‘Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa 2013–2017’ (SEV-2012-0208) and from ‘Secretaria d’Universitats i Recerca del Departament d’Economia i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya’ (2014SGR678).