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The localization of pre mRNA splicing factor PRPF38B is a novel prognostic biomarker that may predict survival benefit of trastuzumab in patients with breast cancer overexpressing HER2.

Author
Abstract
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Cancer biomarkers that can define disease status and provide a prognostic insight are essential for the effective management of patients with breast cancer (BC). The prevalence, clinicopathological and prognostic significance of PRPF38B expression in a consecutive series of 1650 patients with primary invasive breast carcinoma were examined using immunohistochemistry. Furthermore, the relationship(s) between clinical outcome and PRPF38B expression was explored in 627 patients with ER-negative (oestrogen receptor) disease, and 322 patients with HER2-overexpressing disease. Membranous expression of PRPF38B was observed in 148/1388 (10.7%) cases and was significantly associated with aggressive clinicopathological features, including high grade, high mitotic index, pleomorphism, invasive ductal carcinoma of no specific type (IDC-NST), ER-negative, HER2-overexpression and p53 mutational status (all p < 0.01). In patients with ER-negative disease receiving chemotherapy, nuclear expression of PRPF38B was significantly associated with a reduced risk of relapse (p = 0.0004), whereas membranous PRPF38B expression was significantly associated with increased risk of relapse (p = 0.004; respectively) at a 5 year follow-up. When patients were stratified according to ER-negative/HER2-positive status, membranous PRPF38B expression was associated with a higher risk of relapse in those patients that did not receive trastuzumab therapy (p = 0.02), whereas in those patients with ER-negative/HER2-positive disease that received trastuzumab adjuvant therapy, membranous PRPF38B expression associated with a lower risk of relapse (p = 0.00018). Nuclear expression of PRPF38B is a good prognostic indicator in both ER-negative patients and ER-negative/HER2-positive BC (breast cancer) patients, whereas membranous localisation of PRPF38B is a poor prognostic biomarker that predicts survival benefit from trastuzumab therapy in patients with ER-negative/HER2-overexpressing BC.

Year of Publication
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2017
Journal
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Oncotarget
Volume
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8
Issue
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68
Number of Pages
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112245-112257
Date Published
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2017
DOI
:
10.18632/oncotarget.22496
Short Title
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Oncotarget
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