PCMT1 as a prognostic marker in breast cancer.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is one of the most aggressive cancers in women, therefore it is necessary to determine novel prognostic markers to estimate survival and advancement the treatment of the disease. Recently, PCMT1, a protein mediating TNBC immune infiltration, has gained attention as a potential therapeutic target. The aim of the study was to demonstrate the relationship between PCMT1 protein overexpression as a prognostic indicator for patients with TNBC cancer and patient survival. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study included 64 samples collected from 64 TNBC patients. We used the ImageJ software with the IHC Profiler driver for image analysis. To improve the reliability of the results, we expanded the analysis by including The Cancer Genome Atlas cohort. RESULTS: We observed strong PCMT1 immunoreactivity in breast cancer samples and PCMT1 expression in TNBC was significantly higher than in the control group. Patients with high PCMT1 expression had a significantly lower overall survival rate (60.62% vs. 90.35%, respectively) than patients with low PCMT1 expression. In our study and TCGA groups, PCMT1 expression did not correlate with lymph node involvement and distant metastases but correlated with tumor stage. The results obtained in a larger TCGA group are consistent with those in our research group. Overexpression of PCMT1 was a prognostic marker of shorter survival in patients with TNBC. CONCLUSIONS: The overexpression of the PCMT1 protein in triple negative breast cancer significantly correlated with shorter overall survival. The confirmed association could be a potential prognostic biomarker for patients with TNBC.