Artikel
Expression of the transcriptional co-regulator FHL2 in human breast cancer is associated with patient prognosis
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Autoren
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Boris Gabriel
- Universitätsfrauenklinik Freiburg, Deutschland
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Dagmar-C. Fischer
- Universitätskinder- und Jugendklinik Rostock
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Marzenna Orlowska-Volk
- Institut für Pathologie der Universität Freiburg
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Axel zur Hausen
- Institut für Pathologie der Universität Freiburg
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Roland Schüle
- Universitätsfrauenklinik Freiburg
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Judith Müller
- Universitätsfrauenklinik Freiburg
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Annette Hasenburg
- Universitätsfrauenklinik Freiburg
| Veröffentlicht: | 20. März 2006 |
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Gliederung
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Objective: The recently described Four and a Half LIM domain protein 2 (FHL2) is a member of the LIM protein superfamily and acts as a transcriptional co-activator of the androgen receptor (AR). Evidence suggests that it might be associated with tumor development. The aim of this study was to analyze the expression of FHL2 in primary human breast cancer and to investigate any correlation between FHL2 expression in the tumor and the outcome of patients.
Methods: In this retrospective study FHL2 expression was examined by means of immunohistochemistry with sections from 85 resected primary breast cancer specimens. Kaplan-Meier survival curves were used to determine the significance of FHL2 expression in the prognosis of breast cancer patients.
Results: 40 (47%) out of 85 samples showed low expression of FHL2, whereas high expression was found in 45 tumors (53%). A statistically significant positive correlation was observed between FHL2 and androgen receptor expression (p=0.029). Patients with tumors expressing low amounts of FHL2 were characterized by a significantly better survival compared to those with high intratumoral FHL2 expression (p=0.0215, Log-Rank test). The additional stratification according to adjuvant tamoxifen treatment revealed a significantly improved survival rate for patients which received tamoxifen and were diagnosed with a tumor expressing high amounts of FHL2. This might indicate that tamoxifen is at least partially capable of reversing the negative prognostic impact of high FHL2 expression. Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed FHL2 expression as a significant independent predictor of survival.
Conclusion: The specific expression in tumor tissue points to an important functional role of FHL2 in human breast cancer. Our survival data indicate that the expression of FHL2 in primary breast cancer is a potentially relevant prognostic factor. Further studies are needed to elucidate whether analysis of FHL2 expression is a suitable tool to predict the response to antihormonal treatment with tamoxifen.
