Open Access

High levels of class III β-tubulin expression are associated with aggressive tumor features in breast cancer

  • Authors:
    • Patrick Lebok
    • Melike Öztürk
    • Uwe Heilenkötter
    • Fritz Jaenicke
    • Volkmar Müller
    • Peter Paluchowski
    • Stefan Geist
    • Christian Wilke
    • Eicke Burandt
    • Annette Lebeau
    • Waldemar Wilczak
    • Till Krech
    • Ronald Simon
    • Guido Sauter
    • Alexander Quaas
  • View Affiliations

  • Published online on: February 9, 2016     https://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2016.4206
  • Pages: 1987-1994
  • Copyright: © Lebok et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License.

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Abstract

Overexpression of class III β‑tubulin (TUBB3), a factor that confers dynamic properties to microtubules, is a candidate biomarker for resistance to microtubule‑targeting chemotherapeutics in breast and other types of solid cancer. Discrepant results from previous studies, with respect to the association of TUBB3 expression levels with breast cancer phenotype and patient prognosis, prompted the present study to investigate TUBB3 expression in a large cohort of breast cancer cases, with available clinical follow‑up data. A preexisting breast cancer prognosis tissue microarray, containing a single 0.6 mm tissue core from each of 2,197 individual patients with breast cancer, was analyzed for TUBB3 expression by immunohistochemistry. The results of the present study revealed that TUBB3 expression was less frequent in lobular breast cancer cases (34%), compared with that of cancer cases of alternative histologies, including breast cancer of no special type (60%; P<0.0001). High TUBB3 positivity was associated with high tumor grade (P<0.0001), negativity for estrogen (P<0.0001) and progesterone receptors (P<0.004), as well as the presence of human epidermal growth factor 2 amplification (P<0.0001) and a triple‑negative phenotype (P<0.0001). TUBB3 overexpression was additionally associated with reduced patient survival if all breast cancer cases of any histology were jointly analyzed (P=0.0088); however this link was not evident in the subset of breast cancer cases of no special type, or in a multivariate analysis including the established prognostic factors of tumor stage, grade and nodal stage. In conclusion, the present study demonstrated that TUBB3 overexpression was associated with adverse features of breast cancer, and that TUBB3 may possess a distinct role in lobular breast cancer cases, compared with alternative histological subtypes. The results of the present study do not support a clinically relevant role for TUBB3 as a prognostic marker in breast cancer.
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March-2016
Volume 11 Issue 3

Print ISSN: 1792-1074
Online ISSN:1792-1082

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Spandidos Publications style
Lebok P, Öztürk M, Heilenkötter U, Jaenicke F, Müller V, Paluchowski P, Geist S, Wilke C, Burandt E, Lebeau A, Lebeau A, et al: High levels of class III β-tubulin expression are associated with aggressive tumor features in breast cancer. Oncol Lett 11: 1987-1994, 2016
APA
Lebok, P., Öztürk, M., Heilenkötter, U., Jaenicke, F., Müller, V., Paluchowski, P. ... Quaas, A. (2016). High levels of class III β-tubulin expression are associated with aggressive tumor features in breast cancer. Oncology Letters, 11, 1987-1994. https://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2016.4206
MLA
Lebok, P., Öztürk, M., Heilenkötter, U., Jaenicke, F., Müller, V., Paluchowski, P., Geist, S., Wilke, C., Burandt, E., Lebeau, A., Wilczak, W., Krech, T., Simon, R., Sauter, G., Quaas, A."High levels of class III β-tubulin expression are associated with aggressive tumor features in breast cancer". Oncology Letters 11.3 (2016): 1987-1994.
Chicago
Lebok, P., Öztürk, M., Heilenkötter, U., Jaenicke, F., Müller, V., Paluchowski, P., Geist, S., Wilke, C., Burandt, E., Lebeau, A., Wilczak, W., Krech, T., Simon, R., Sauter, G., Quaas, A."High levels of class III β-tubulin expression are associated with aggressive tumor features in breast cancer". Oncology Letters 11, no. 3 (2016): 1987-1994. https://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2016.4206