Published in:
Open Access
01-12-2014 | Research
A 41-gene signature derived from breast cancer stem cells as a predictor of survival
Authors:
Zhi-Qiang Yin, Jian-Jun Liu, Ying-Chun Xu, Jian Yu, Guo-Hui Ding, Feng Yang, Lei Tang, Bao-Hong Liu, Yue Ma, Yu-Wei Xia, Xiao-Lin Lin, Hong-Xia Wang
Published in:
Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research
|
Issue 1/2014
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Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study was to evaluate the ability of a 41-gene signature derived from breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs) to estimate the risk of metastasis and survival in breast cancer patients.
Methods
The centroid expression of the 41-gene signature derived from BCSCs was applied as the threshold to classify patients into two separate groups—patients with high expression (high-EL) of the prognostic signature and patients with low expression (low-EL). The predictive ability of the 41-gene signature was evaluated by Cox regression model and was compared against other popular tests, such as Oncotype and MammaPrint.
Results
Our results showed that the 41-gene prognostic signature was significantly associated with age (P = .0351) and ER status (P = .0095). The analysis indicated that patients in the high-EL group had a worse prognosis than those in the low-EL group in terms of both overall survival (OS: HR, 2.05, P = .009) and distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS: HR, 2.24, P = .002). Additionally, the 41-gene signature was an independent risk factor and separates patients based on estrogen receptor status. While comparable to Oncotype, the analysis demonstrated that the 41-gene signature had a better prognostic value in predicting DMFS and OS than AOL, NPI, St. Gallen, Veridex, and MammaPrint.
Conclusions
This study confirms the utility of the 41-gene signature and adds to the growing evidence that gene expression signatures of BCSCs have clinical potential to predict patient outcome and aid in treatment choice.