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Hamilton AM, Walens A, Van Alsten SC, Olsson LT, Nsonwu-Farley J, Gao X, Kirk EL, Perou CM, Carey LA, Troester MA, Abdou Y. BIRC5 expression by race, age and clinical factors in breast cancer patients. Breast Cancer Res 2024; 26:50. [PMID: 38515208 PMCID: PMC10956264 DOI: 10.1186/s13058-024-01792-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2023] [Accepted: 02/20/2024] [Indexed: 03/23/2024] Open
Abstract
PURPOSE Survivin/BIRC5 is a proliferation marker that is associated with poor prognosis in breast cancer and an attractive therapeutic target. However, BIRC5 has not been well studied among racially diverse populations where aggressive breast cancers are prevalent. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN We studied BIRC5 expression in association with clinical and demographic variables and as a predictor of recurrence in 2174 participants in the Carolina Breast Cancer Study (CBCS), a population-based study that oversampled Black (n = 1113) and younger (< 50 years; n = 1137) participants with breast cancer. For comparison, similar analyses were conducted in The Cancer Genome Atlas [TCGA N = 1094, Black (n = 183), younger (n = 295)]. BIRC5 was evaluated as a continuous and categorical variable (highest quartile vs. lower three quartiles). RESULTS Univariate, continuous BIRC5 expression was higher in breast tumors from Black women relative to non-Black women in both estrogen receptor (ER)-positive and ER-negative tumors and in analyses stratified by stage (i.e., within Stage I, Stage II, and Stage III/IV tumors). Within CBCS and TCGA, BIRC5-high was associated with young age (< 50 years) and Black race, as well as hormone receptor-negative tumors, non-Luminal A PAM50 subtypes, advanced stage, and larger tumors (> 2 cm). Relative to BIRC5-low, BIRC5-high tumors were associated with poor 5-year recurrence-free survival (RFS) among ER-positive tumors, both in unadjusted models [HR (95% CI): 2.7 (1.6, 4.6)] and after adjustment for age and stage [Adjusted HR (95% CI): 1.87 (1.07, 3.25)]. However, this relationship was not observed among ER-negative tumors [Crude HR (95% CI): 0.7 (0.39, 1.2); Adjusted HR (95% CI): 0.67 (0.37, 1.2)]. CONCLUSION Black and younger women with breast cancer have a higher burden of BIRC5-high tumors than older and non-Black women. Emerging anti-survivin treatment strategies may be an important future direction for equitable breast cancer outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alina M Hamilton
- Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA
| | - Andrea Walens
- Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA
- Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA
| | - Sarah C Van Alsten
- Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA
| | - Linnea T Olsson
- Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA
| | - Joseph Nsonwu-Farley
- Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA
| | - Xiaohua Gao
- Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA
- Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA
| | - Erin L Kirk
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA
| | - Charles M Perou
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA
- Department of Genetics, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA
| | - Lisa A Carey
- Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA
- Department of Genetics, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA
| | - Melissa A Troester
- Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA
- Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA
| | - Yara Abdou
- Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA.
- Department of Medicine, Division of Oncology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 101 Manning Drive, CB# 7305, Chapel Hill, NC, 27514, USA.
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Sun S, Dammann J, Lai P, Tian C. Thorough statistical analyses of breast cancer co-methylation patterns. BMC Genom Data 2022; 23:29. [PMID: 35428183 PMCID: PMC9011975 DOI: 10.1186/s12863-022-01046-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/27/2021] [Accepted: 04/01/2022] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
Background
Breast cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers. It is associated with DNA methylation, an epigenetic event with a methyl group added to a cytosine paired with a guanine, i.e., a CG site. The methylation levels of different genes in a genome are correlated in certain ways that affect gene functions. This correlation pattern is known as co-methylation. It is still not clear how different genes co-methylate in the whole genome of breast cancer samples. Previous studies are conducted using relatively small datasets (Illumina 27K data). In this study, we analyze much larger datasets (Illumina 450K data).
Results
Our key findings are summarized below. First, normal samples have more highly correlated, or co-methylated, CG pairs than tumor samples. Both tumor and normal samples have more than 93% positive co-methylation, but normal samples have significantly more negatively correlated CG sites than tumor samples (6.6% vs. 2.8%). Second, both tumor and normal samples have about 94% of co-methylated CG pairs on different chromosomes, but normal samples have 470 million more CG pairs. Highly co-methylated pairs on the same chromosome tend to be close to each other. Third, a small proportion of CG sites’ co-methylation patterns change dramatically from normal to tumor. The percentage of differentially methylated (DM) sites among them is larger than the overall DM rate. Fourth, certain CG sites are highly correlated with many CG sites. The top 100 of such super-connector CG sites in tumor and normal samples have no overlaps. Fifth, both highly changing sites and super-connector sites’ locations are significantly different from the genome-wide CG sites’ locations. Sixth, chromosome X co-methylation patterns are very different from other chromosomes. Finally, the network analyses of genes associated with several sets of co-methylated CG sites identified above show that tumor and normal samples have different patterns.
Conclusions
Our findings will provide researchers with a new understanding of co-methylation patterns in breast cancer. Our ability to thoroughly analyze co-methylation of large datasets will allow researchers to study relationships and associations between different genes in breast cancer.
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Oparina N, Erlandsson MC, Fäldt Beding A, Parris T, Helou K, Karlsson P, Einbeigi Z, Bokarewa MI. Prognostic Significance of BIRC5/Survivin in Breast Cancer: Results from Three Independent Cohorts. Cancers (Basel) 2021; 13:cancers13092209. [PMID: 34064473 PMCID: PMC8125570 DOI: 10.3390/cancers13092209] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2021] [Revised: 04/28/2021] [Accepted: 05/01/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Simple Summary Survivin, coded by the BIRC5 gene, is the cell death preventing protein, which is important for cell division in normal and cancer cells. It is intensively studied as a cancer biomarker and target for antitumor therapy. In this study we asked if we could get clinically helpful information on how active BIRC5 is in breast cancer patients? We studied the BIRC5 protein level in tumor samples for breast cancer patients from a West Swedish cohort and its mRNA level in two different public gene expression databases. Survival analysis demonstrated that a higher BIRC5 protein or mRNA level was associated with poor survival in all cohorts and for different cancer subtypes. We show that BIRC5 is a promising independent cancer survival marker. Abstract Breast cancer (BC) histological and molecular classifications significantly improved the treatment strategy and prognosis. Inhibitor of apoptosis BIRC5/survivin is often overexpressed in cancers, however, indications of its importance in BC are inconsistent. We integrate BIRC5 protein and mRNA measures with clinical associates and long-term outcome in three independent cohorts Protein levels of BIRC5 were measured in primary lysates of 845 patients of the West Swedish BC cohort (VGR-BC) and linked to 5- and 27-years survival. The results were externally validated in transcriptomic data from METABRIC and SCAN-B cohorts. Survival analysis showed that high levels of BIRC5 were consistently associated with a poor probability of 5-year overall survival. High BIRC5 in VGR-BC contributed negatively to the disease-specific survival at 5 and 27 years. Subsets with different status by ER (estrogen receptor) expression and presence of nodal metastasis supported independent association of high BIRC5 with poor prognosis in all cohorts. In METABRIC and SCAN-B cohorts, high levels of BIRC5 mRNA were associated with the basal-like and luminal B molecular BC subtypes and with increasing histologic grade. BIRC5 is a sensitive survival marker that acts independent of ER and nodal status, and its levels need to be considered when making treatment decisions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nina Oparina
- Department of Rheumatology and Inflammation Research, Institute of Medicine, University of Gothenburg; 40530 Gothenburg, Sweden; (M.C.E.); (M.I.B.)
- Correspondence:
| | - Malin C. Erlandsson
- Department of Rheumatology and Inflammation Research, Institute of Medicine, University of Gothenburg; 40530 Gothenburg, Sweden; (M.C.E.); (M.I.B.)
- Rheumatology Clinic, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, 41345 Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Anna Fäldt Beding
- Department of Medicine and Oncology, Southern Älvsborg Hospital, 50182 Borås, Sweden; (A.F.B.); (Z.E.)
| | - Toshima Parris
- Department of Oncology, Institute of Clinical Science at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, 40530 Gothenburg, Sweden; (T.P.); (K.H.); (P.K.)
| | - Khalil Helou
- Department of Oncology, Institute of Clinical Science at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, 40530 Gothenburg, Sweden; (T.P.); (K.H.); (P.K.)
- The King Gustav Vth Jubilee Clinic, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, 41345 Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Per Karlsson
- Department of Oncology, Institute of Clinical Science at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, 40530 Gothenburg, Sweden; (T.P.); (K.H.); (P.K.)
- The King Gustav Vth Jubilee Clinic, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, 41345 Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Zakaria Einbeigi
- Department of Medicine and Oncology, Southern Älvsborg Hospital, 50182 Borås, Sweden; (A.F.B.); (Z.E.)
- Department of Oncology, Institute of Clinical Science at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, 40530 Gothenburg, Sweden; (T.P.); (K.H.); (P.K.)
| | - Maria I. Bokarewa
- Department of Rheumatology and Inflammation Research, Institute of Medicine, University of Gothenburg; 40530 Gothenburg, Sweden; (M.C.E.); (M.I.B.)
- Rheumatology Clinic, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, 41345 Gothenburg, Sweden
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Von Holle A, O’Brien KM, Sandler DP, Weinberg CR. Evidence for familial clustering in breast cancer age of onset. Int J Epidemiol 2021; 50:97-104. [PMID: 33247915 PMCID: PMC7938508 DOI: 10.1093/ije/dyaa201] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/24/2020] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Familial clustering of age at onset would have implications for both personalized screening and aetiology, but has not been studied for breast cancer. METHODS We prospectively studied a cohort of 23 145 sisters to explore whether their breast cancer risk changed near the age at diagnosis of a previously affected older sister. Using an age-time-dependent variable in a Cox regression model, we estimated hazard ratios for breast cancer when participants were near their sister's diagnosis age, relative to similarly aged women whose sister was diagnosed at a very different age. To rule out a correlation driven by young-onset familial cancer, we separately investigated women who had enrolled at age 50 or older. RESULTS Of the 23 145 women, 1412 developed breast cancer during follow-up (median 9.5 years). The estimated hazard ratio was 1.80 (95% confidence interval: 1.18, 2.74) at their sister's age at diagnosis, suggesting a substantial increase in risk compared with women of the same age but whose sister was diagnosed at a very different age. Restriction to women who enrolled at or after age 50 produced similar results. CONCLUSIONS This familial clustering suggests that there may be important genetic and/or early environmental risk factors that influence the timing of breast cancer, even when onset is late in life. Personalized screening might need to account for the age at which a sister was earlier diagnosed with breast cancer.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ann Von Holle
- National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, POB 12233, Research Triangle, NC, USA
| | - Katie M O’Brien
- National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, POB 12233, Research Triangle, NC, USA
| | - Dale P Sandler
- National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, POB 12233, Research Triangle, NC, USA
| | - Clarice R Weinberg
- National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, POB 12233, Research Triangle, NC, USA
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