Expression of Krüppel-like factor 9 in breast cancer patients and its effect on prognosis

Abstract

Expression of Krüppel-like factor 9 (KLF9) in breast cancer tissue and its influence on prognosis was investigated. Sixty-eight patients with breast cancer admitted in Ningde Hospital Affiliated to Fujian Medical University from February 2014 to August 2015 were collected, and the expression level of KLF9 in cancerous tissue (n=68) and normal tissue (n=68) of the patients was measured by quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR). The relationship between the expression and clinical pathological features and prognosis of patients was analyzed. The expression level of KLF9 in cancerous tissue was significantly lower than that in normal tissue (P<0.05). The expression in breast cancer tissue was not significantly correlated with age, height, menstrual status, lymph node metastasis or pathological differentiation (P>0.05), but was significantly correlated with tumor size and clinical stage (P<0.05). The 1-, 2-, and 3-year survival rates in the high expression group were significantly higher than those in the low expression group (P<0.001). Univariate Cox regression analysis was carried out according to the 3-year survival of the patients, and the results showed that tumor size (P= 0.009), lymph node metastasis (P= 0.002), pathological differentiation (P=0.015), clinical stage (P=0.013), and KLF9 (P=0.018) were factors affecting the survival of breast cancer patients. Subsequently, multivariate Cox regression analysis of the indicators with differences showed that those indicators were independent predictors of survival of breast cancer patients. In conclusion, KLF9 expression is low in breast cancer tissue, and its expression level is related to tumor size and clinical stage. Moreover, tumor size >5 cm, lymph node metastasis, low pathological differentiation, high clinical stage and low expression of KLF9 are all important factors that cause death of patients.

Krüppel-like Factor-9 and Krüppel-like Factor-13: Highly Related, Multi-Functional, Transcriptional Repressors and Activators of Oncogenesis

“…KLF9 gene and protein expression is lower in breast cancers when compared to paired normal tissue; moreover, KLF9 inhibited breast cancer cell proliferation and invasion in vitro and in vivo [93,107,133,[160][161][162][163]. Part of the suppressive effect of KLF9 on breast cancer promotion was suggested to involve its role in repressing E-cadherin expression [93] and in supporting normal circadian physiology [133].…”

KLF9 inhibits breast cancer metastasis by up-regulating E-cadherin

“…All members of the KLF family have three highly conserved zinc nger motifs DNA-binding domain (DNA-binding domain, DBD) at the C-terminal of the proteins, recognizing GC-rich sequences with a preference for the 5′-CACCC-3′ core motif in the promoters and enhancers (31). Expression pro ling of migrated and invaded breast cancer cells reveals KLF9 as a potential suppressor of invasion in breast cancer (32)(33)(34). Recently, our studies have found KLF9 could inhibit breast cancer metastasis by transcriptionally inhibiting MMP9 (35).…”