RNF168 expression in breast cancer

Abstract

Background: Breast cancer is the commonest female cancer. DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) associated proteins such as BRCA1 have been shown to be involved in tumourigenesis of breast tissue. One of the key regulators of DSBs, the RING Finger Protein 168 (RNF168), controls DNA damage responses (including the manipulation of homologous recombinant and non-homologous end-joining repair) which are responsible for correction of errors that occur during DSBs in order to maintain genomic stability. The nature of this protein suggests that RNF168 may play an important role in development of breast cancer.

Material and methods: This study investigated the relationship of RNF168 expression in breast cancer by immunohistochemistry staining of 118 breast cancer samples in tissue microarray. The nuclear stain and cytoplasmic stain of the sections were assessed. Nuclear localization score was obtained and correlated with clinico-pathological features of the patients.

Results: Immunohistological staining of RNF168 was successful in 99 cases of the tested breast cancer specimens. The expression of RNF168 was found to be significantly correlated with the occurrence of breast cancer metastasis (p=0.032). Strong expression of the protein was also found to be significantly associated with poorer breast cancer prognosis (p=0.033). In addition, correlation analysis also showed marginal correlation between nuclear localization of RNF168 with the age of patients at their first disease diagnosis (p=0.061).

Conclusion: RNF168 might play a critical role in promoting breast cancer metastasis during the advanced stage of breast cancer, which results in poor disease prognosis. Detailed mechanism involved in metastasis promotion remained to be revealed in further study.