Discoidin Domain Receptor 2 Expression as Worse Prognostic Marker in Invasive Breast Cancer.

Discoidin domain receptor 2 () is arising as a promising therapeutic target in breast carcinoma (BC). The ability of to bind to collagen promotes protumoral responses in cancer cells that influence the tumor microenvironment (TME). Nonetheless, the interrelation between expression and TME modulation during BC progression remains poorly known. For this reason, we aim to evaluate the correlation between intratumoral expression of and the infiltration of the main TME cell populations, cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), and tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs). First, collagen and expression levels were analyzed in human invasive BC samples. Then, status correlation with tumor aggressiveness and patient survival were retrieved from different databases. Subsequently, the main pathways, cell types, and tissues correlated with expression in BC were obtained through bioinformatics approach. Finally, we studied the association of expression with the recruitment of CAFs and TAMs. Our findings showed that, together with the expected overexpression of TME markers, was upregulated in tumor samples. Besides, we uncovered that altered TME markers were linked to expression in invasive BC patients. Consequently, modulates the stromal reaction through CAFs and TAMs infiltration and could be used as a potential worse prognostic factor in the treatment response of invasive BC.