Wang Dan-Qing, Wang Yuan-Yuan, Shi Yan-Ling, Zeng Bin, Lin Zi-Jing, Deng Qin, Ming Jia
Department of Breast and Thyroid Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing 400010, People's Republic of China.
Department of Emergency, Xi'an Central Hospital, Xi'an 710003, People's Republic of China.
Heliyon. 2023 Jul 26;9(8):e18697. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e18697. eCollection 2023 Aug.
Connexin 43 (Cx43) has been closely linked to the occurrence and progression of breast cancer. Distant metastasis of breast cancer is aided by the epithelial-mesenchymal transition of circulating tumor cells (CTCs). However, the impact of Cx43 expression on CTCs and the extent of its role in the disease remain unclear.
We determined CTCs in 156 patients, who had breast cancer with a disease course of two or more years. We also measured the expression of Cx43 in the CTCs. The CTCs were detected in the blood of 139 of these patients. These 139 patients were divided into two groups: the Cx43 group and the non-Cx43 group based on their Cx43 expression.
Overall, Cx43 expression was found in 83 of the 139 patients (59.7%, 83/139 cases). The two groups significantly differed in terms of the number of mixed biphenotypic type CTCs and the total number of CTCs ( < 0.05). There were significant correlations between Cx43 expression and Ki67 expression, tumor size, lymph node metastasis, and TNM stage ( < 0.05 for all). The data suggested that patients with Cx43 expression had a higher risk of distant metastasis and had later-stage disease. The difference in Cx43 expression between patients with and without epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (Her2) overexpression was statistically significant ( < 0.05). The difference in disease-free survival (DFS) between the two groups was statistically significant ( = 0.03), and the Cx43 group had a shorter duration of DFS. Univariate Cox regression analysis revealed that Cx43 expression, Her2 expression, and tumor size were significantly correlated with DFS ( = 0.03, 0.0023, and 0.01, respectively).
Cx43 expression in the CTCs of patients with breast cancer is a cancer-promoting factor.
连接蛋白43（Cx43）与乳腺癌的发生和发展密切相关。循环肿瘤细胞（CTC）的上皮-间质转化有助于乳腺癌的远处转移。然而，Cx43表达对CTC的影响及其在该疾病中的作用程度仍不清楚。
我们测定了156例病程两年及以上的乳腺癌患者的CTC。我们还检测了CTC中Cx43的表达。在其中139例患者的血液中检测到了CTC。根据Cx43表达情况，将这139例患者分为两组：Cx43组和非Cx43组。
总体而言，139例患者中有83例（59.7%，83/139例）检测到Cx43表达。两组在混合双表型CTC数量和CTC总数方面存在显著差异（P<0.05）。Cx43表达与Ki67表达、肿瘤大小、淋巴结转移及TNM分期之间均存在显著相关性（均P<0.05）。数据表明，Cx43表达阳性的患者远处转移风险更高，疾病分期更晚。表皮生长因子受体2（Her2）过表达与未过表达患者之间Cx43表达差异具有统计学意义（P<0.05）。两组无病生存期（DFS）差异具有统计学意义（P=0.03），Cx43组DFS持续时间更短。单因素Cox回归分析显示，Cx43表达、Her2表达和肿瘤大小与DFS显著相关（分别为P=0.03、0.0023和0.01）。
乳腺癌患者CTC中的Cx43表达是一种促癌因素。
