Clinical significance of NDRG3 in patients with breast cancer

Abstract

Aim: The expression level of NDRG3 gene is investigated among breast cancer (BC) patients. Methods: Real-time quantitative PCR was performed. Results: NDRG3 was downregulated in BC patients particularly in advanced stage of the disease. HER2 status was significantly correlated with the expression of NDRG3. Also, triple-negative BC patients showed low levels of NDRG3 expression in comparison to other subtypes. Lastly, the expression of NDRG3 had significant impact on survival, with NDRG3 downregulated patients having the worst event-free survival rate among others. Conclusion: We have presented that NDRG3 might be a tumor suppressor candidate. NDRG3 downregulation might be involved in the tumorigenesis and development of invasive BC in an advanced phase of the disease.

Keywords:

• breast cancer
• MYC
• NDRG

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all patients who contributed to the present study.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This work was funded by the Breast Cancer Research Centre, ACECR, Iran. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Ethical conduct of research

BCRC-BB is obliged to ethical guidelines and recommendations for biobanks on the storage and use of human biological samples. The study was approved by the BCRC Ethics Committee which is in compliance with the Helsinki declaration. The authors state that they have obtained appropriate institutional review board approval or have followed the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki for all human or animal experimental investigations. In addition, for investigations involving human subjects, informed consent has been obtained from the participants involved.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by the Breast Cancer Research Centre, ACECR, Iran. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.