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Open Access 01-04-2010 | Research article

The expression level of HJURP has an independent prognostic impact and predicts the sensitivity to radiotherapy in breast cancer

Authors: Zhi Hu, Ge Huang, Anguraj Sadanandam, Shenda Gu, Marc E Lenburg, Melody Pai, Nora Bayani, Eleanor A Blakely, Joe W Gray, Jian-Hua Mao

Published in: Breast Cancer Research | Issue 2/2010

Abstract

Introduction

HJURP (Holliday Junction Recognition Protein) is a newly discovered gene reported to function at centromeres and to interact with CENPA. However its role in tumor development remains largely unknown. The goal of this study was to investigate the clinical significance of HJURP in breast cancer and its correlation with radiotherapeutic outcome.

Methods

We measured HJURP expression level in human breast cancer cell lines and primary breast cancers by Western blot and/or by Affymetrix Microarray; and determined its associations with clinical variables using standard statistical methods. Validation was performed with the use of published microarray data. We assessed cell growth and apoptosis of breast cancer cells after radiation using high-content image analysis.

Results

HJURP was expressed at higher level in breast cancer than in normal breast tissue. HJURP mRNA levels were significantly associated with estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), Scarff-Bloom-Richardson (SBR) grade, age and Ki67 proliferation indices, but not with pathologic stage, ERBB2, tumor size, or lymph node status. Higher HJURP mRNA levels significantly decreased disease-free and overall survival. HJURP mRNA levels predicted the prognosis better than Ki67 proliferation indices. In a multivariate Cox proportional-hazard regression, including clinical variables as covariates, HJURP mRNA levels remained an independent prognostic factor for disease-free and overall survival. In addition HJURP mRNA levels were an independent prognostic factor over molecular subtypes (normal like, luminal, Erbb2 and basal). Poor clinical outcomes among patients with high HJURP expression were validated in five additional breast cancer cohorts. Furthermore, the patients with high HJURP levels were much more sensitive to radiotherapy. In vitro studies in breast cancer cell lines showed that cells with high HJURP levels were more sensitive to radiation treatment and had a higher rate of apoptosis than those with low levels. Knock down of HJURP in human breast cancer cells using shRNA reduced the sensitivity to radiation treatment. HJURP mRNA levels were significantly correlated with CENPA mRNA levels.

Conclusions

HJURP mRNA level is a prognostic factor for disease-free and overall survival in patients with breast cancer and is a predictive biomarker for sensitivity to radiotherapy.

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Title: The expression level of HJURP has an independent prognostic impact and predicts the sensitivity to radiotherapy in breast cancer
Authors: Zhi Hu
Ge Huang
Anguraj Sadanandam
Shenda Gu
Marc E Lenburg
Melody Pai
Nora Bayani
Eleanor A Blakely
Joe W Gray
Jian-Hua Mao
Publication date: 01-04-2010
Publisher: BioMed Central
Published in: Breast Cancer Research / Issue 2/2010
Electronic ISSN: 1465-542X
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/bcr2487

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