Xu Hui, Zhao Xi-Long, Liu Xue, Hu Xu-Gang, Fu Wen-Juan, Li Qian, Wang Yan, Ping Yi-Fang, Zhang Xia, Bian Xiu-Wu, Yao Xiao-Hong
Institute of Pathology and Southwest Cancer Center, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical UniversityChongqing 400038, China.
Am J Cancer Res. 2017 Apr 1;7(4):955-961. eCollection 2017.
Achaete scute-like 2 (ASCL2) is a member of the basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factors, and is expressed mainly in intestinal stem cells under normal conditions. Recently, aberrantly elevated ASCL2 was detected in cancer tissues, but the clinical relevance of ASCL2 in breast cancers remains to be decided. In this study, we evaluated the expression of ASCL2 and its relationship to cancer progression in specimens from 191 cases of breast cancer patients with follow-up information. The results indicated that ASCL2 was highly expressed in cancer cells while it was undetectable in normal epithelial cells. Moreover, the expression of ASCL2 was positively correlated with breast tumor size, lymphatic metastasis and the active growth of tumor cells as shown by increased expression of Ki67. Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that patients with higher levels of ASCL2 suffered higher tumor recurrent rate. Multivariable Cox-regression analysis showed that elevated expression of ASCL2 was an independent and unfavorable indicator of tumor relapse in breast cancer patients. Altogether, our study suggests that ASCL2 defines a subgroup of highly progressive breast cancer and serves as a marker to evaluate the risk of cancer relapse.
achaete-scute 样 2（ASCL2）是碱性螺旋-环-螺旋（bHLH）转录因子家族的成员，在正常情况下主要在肠道干细胞中表达。最近，在癌组织中检测到 ASCL2 异常升高，但 ASCL2 在乳腺癌中的临床相关性仍有待确定。在本研究中，我们评估了 191 例有随访信息的乳腺癌患者标本中 ASCL2 的表达及其与癌症进展的关系。结果表明，ASCL2 在癌细胞中高表达，而在正常上皮细胞中未检测到。此外，ASCL2 的表达与乳腺肿瘤大小、淋巴转移以及肿瘤细胞的活跃生长呈正相关，Ki67 表达增加表明了这一点。Kaplan-Meier 分析显示，ASCL2 水平较高的患者肿瘤复发率较高。多变量 Cox 回归分析表明，ASCL2 表达升高是乳腺癌患者肿瘤复发的独立且不良指标。总之，我们的研究表明，ASCL2 定义了一组高度进展性乳腺癌亚组，并可作为评估癌症复发风险的标志物。
