Fibroblast Growth Factor Receptor 4 as A Prognostic Indicator in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

Background: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is one of the most aggressive breast cancers, and patients with this subtype usually have a poor prognosis. Early analyses identified that fibroblast growth factor receptor 4 (FGFR4) was involved in breast cancer, but its prognostic effect on TNBC is unknown. In the present study, we investigated the association between FGFR4 and TNBC prognosis.Methods: FGFR4 protein expression was detected in 282 TNBC patients using immunohistochemistry.Results: FGFR4 was highly expressed in TNBC patients. Lymph node metastasis (LNM) (P=0.033) and p53 status (P=0.019) were associated with high FGFR4 expression. Univariate analysis identified high FGFR4 expression (P=0.016) as a prognostic predictor, and multivariate analysis found that high FGFR4 expression (P=0.016) was an independent prognostic factor. The Kaplan-Meier survival curve showed that high FGFR4 protein expression was correlated with poorer overall survival.Conclusions: The results of our present study show that FGFR4 protein expression is correlated with a worse prognosis in TNBC.