T-cadherin association with clinicopathological features and prognosis in axillary lymph node-positive breast cancer

Interactive association between dietary fat and sex on CDH13 cg02263260 methylation

BACKGROUND

DNA methylation of Cadherin 13 (CDH13), a tumor suppressor gene is associated with gene repression and carcinogenesis. We determined the relation of dietary fat and sex with CDH13 cg02263260 methylation in Taiwanese adults.

METHODS

Data of 870 eligible participants (430 men and 440 women) between 30 and 70 years were obtained from the Taiwan Biobank (TWB) database. The association of dietary fat and sex with CDH13 cg02263260 methylation was determined using multiple linear regression.

RESULTS

The association between sex and cg02263260 methylation was significant: beta-coefficient (β) = 0.00532; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.00195-0.00868. Moreover, the interaction between sex and dietary fat on cg02263260 methylation was significant (P-value = 0.0145). After stratification by sex, the association of dietary fat with cg02263260 methylation was significant only in women. Specifically, high dietary fat was positively associated with cg02263260 methylation in women (β = 0.00597; 95% CI = 0.00061-0.01133) and the test for trend was significant (P-value = 0.0283).

CONCLUSION

High fat intake was significantly associated with higher cg02263260 methylation in women and the test for trend was significant. These findings suggest that the association of fat intake and CDH13 cg02263260 might vary by sex and CDH13 cg02263260 methylation levels in women might increase as fat intake increases.

Effect of T-cadherin on the AKT/mTOR signaling pathway, gastric cancer cell cycle, migration and invasion, and its association with patient survival rate

Gastric cancer (GC) is among the most common types of human cancer and is associated with recurrence and metastasis, despite comprehensive surgical and medical treatment. Previous studies observed downregulation of T-cadherin expression in GC tissues, suggesting that this protein may act as an oncosuppressor. The current study investigated the activity of T-cadherin in GC tissues. In a follow-up study of 81 patients with GC, a Kaplan-Meier analysis of overall survival revealed a strong association of T-cadherin overexpression with increased overall survival (P<0.01). Furthermore, stable T-cadherin-overexpressing cell lines were established from HGC-27 cells via transfection of a pcDNA3.1-T-cadherin plasmid and in vitro growth and cell cycle of these cells were measured using MTT and flow cytometry assays, respectively. MTT assays revealed that proliferation of engineered T-cadherin-overexpressing cells was significantly inhibited and flow cytometry demonstrated that T-cadherin overexpression in HGC-27 cells induced cell cycle arrest in the G₀/G₁ phase. Transwell assays demonstrated that T-cadherin-overexpressing HGC-27 cells exhibited reduced invasiveness and metastatic potential. Phosphorylated (p)-protein kinase B (AKT) and p-mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) protein levels were reduced in T-cadherin overexpressing HGC-27 cells, suggesting that the AKT/mTOR signaling pathway was involved in the gastric tumor inhibitory effect of T-cadherin. Administration of AKT-activator, insulin-like growth factor-1, to T-cadherin-overexpressing HGC-27 cells significantly affected the proliferation phenotype. In conclusion, the current study provided clinical evidence and revealed a potential mechanism supporting that T-cadherin inhibits gastric tumorigenesis through inhibition of the AKT/mTOR signaling pathway.

Association of T-cadherin levels with the response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in locally advanced breast cancer

Purpose

To examine the association of T-cadherin with pathologic complete response (pCR) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy for locally advanced breast cancer.

Results

T-cadherin expression before and after neoadjuvant chemotherapy was similar (P = 0.162). The multivariable analysis indicated that negative T-cadherin expression was independently associated with pCR after neoadjuvant TAC chemotherapy (P = 0.001).

Materials and Methods

A total of 136 patients with locally advanced breast cancer received four cycles of neoadjuvant TAC chemotherapy (docetaxel + epirubicin + cyclophosphamide), followed by surgery. T-cadherin, estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), HER-2, and Ki-67 were analyzed by immunohistochemistry. The association between T-cadherin expression and pCR after neoadjuvant chemotherapy was analyzed using multivariable logistic analysis.

Conclusions

Negative T-cadherin expression before and after neoadjuvant chemotherapy for locally advanced breast cancer was similar. T-cadherin could be considered an independent factor associated with the efficacy of such therapy.

T-cadherin is associated with prognosis in triple-negative breast cancer

The purpose of the present study was to assess the prognostic impact of T-cadherin expression in patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). On the basis of the results of immunohistochemical analysis, 106 patients with operable TNBC were divided into two groups, the T-cadherin-positive group and T-cadherin-negative group. Fisher's exact and χ² tests were employed to analyze clinical data, which included the association between T-cadherin expression and clinicopathological features and prognosis. The log-rank test was used to examine the impact of T-cadherin expression on the 5-year disease-free survival (DFS) and the 5-year overall survival (OS) of these patients. Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analyses were introduced to analyze DFS and OS. Compared with the T-cadherin-positive group (58.3, 52.8 and 47.2, respectively; P=0.018, P=0.017, and P=0.047), tumor size >2 cm, grade II and III (Elston-Ellis modification of Bloom-Richardson grading system), and positive lymph node status were significantly more common in the T-cadherin-negative group compared with the T-cadherin-positive group (80.0 vs. 58.3%, 75.7 vs. 52.8% and 67.1 vs. 47.2%, respectively) (P=0.018, P=0.017, and P=0.047). Compared with the T-cadherin-positive group, 5-year DFS and OS levels were significantly lower in the T-cadherin-negative group (Z=6.233, P=0.013; Z=5.366, P=0.021). Multivariate analysis revealed that negative T-cadherin expression was an independent prognostic factor for DFS (P=0.009) and OS (P=0.048). The results of the present study indicated that negative T-cadherin expression indicated a worse prognosis for patients with TNBC.

A Systematic Analysis of the Relationship of CDH13 Promoter Methylation and Breast Cancer Risk and Prognosis

Background

CDH13 (cadherin 13) is a special cadherin cell adhesion molecule, and the methylation of its promoter causes inactivation in a considerable number of human cancers. To explore the association between CDH13 promoter methylation and breast cancer risk and prognosis, we systematically integrated published articles to investigate the diagnostic performance of the CDH13 methylation test for breast cancer. An independent DNA methylation microarray dataset from The Cancer Genome Atlas project (TCGA) project was used to validate the results of the meta-analysis.

Methods

The relevant literature was searched using the PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science and Google Scholar databases for articles published in English up to May 2015. Data were analyzed using random effect or fixed effect models. The effect sizes were estimated by measuring an odds ratio (OR) or hazard ratio (HR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI). A chi-squared based Q test and sensitivity analysis were performed to examine the between-study heterogeneity and the contribution of single studies to the final results, respectively. Funnel plots were constructed to evaluate publication bias.

Results

Seven hundred and twenty-six breast tumor samples and 422 controls were collected from 13 published studies. The data from the TCGA set include both tumor and normal samples. A significant association was observed between CDH13 promoter methylation and breast cancer, with an aggregated OR equal to 13.73 (95%CI: 8.09~23.31, z = 9.70, p<0.0001) as measured using the fixed effect model and 14.23 (95%CI: 5.06~40.05, z = 5.03, p<0.0001) as measured using a random effect model. The HR values were calculated as 0.77 (95%CI: 0.27~2.21, z = -0.49, p = 0.622) and 0.38 (95%CI: 0.09~1.69, z = -1.27, p = 0.20) for overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS), respectively, using the random effect model. This result indicated that breast cancer patients with CDH13 promoter methylation correlated non-significantly with prognosis and is therefore similar to the findings of the TCGA project.

Conclusions

The methylation status of CDH13 promoter was strongly associated with breast cancer risk. However, CDH13 promoter methylation was not significantly related to the OS and DFS of breast cancer and may have limited prognostic value for breast cancer patients.