Harnessing the value of TCTP in breast cancer treatment resistance: an opportunity for personalized therapy

Abstract

Early identification of breast cancer (BC) patients at a high risk of progression may aid in therapeutic and prognostic aims. This is especially true for metastatic disease, which is responsible for most cancer-related deaths. Growing evidence indicates that the translationally controlled tumor protein (TCTP) may be a clinically relevant marker for identifying poorly differentiated aggressive BC tumors. TCTP is an intriguing protein with pleiotropic functions, which is involved in multiple signaling pathways. TCTP may also be involved in stress response, cell growth and proliferation-related processes, underlying its potential role in the initiation of metastatic growth. Thus, TCTP marks specific cancer cell sub-populations with pronounced stress adaptation, stem-like and immune-evasive properties. Therefore, we have shown that in vivo phospho-TCTP levels correlate with the response of BC cells to anti-HER2 agents. In this review, we discuss the clinical relevance of TCTP for personalized therapy, specific TCTP-targeting strategies, and currently available therapeutic agents. We propose TCTP as an actionable clinically relevant target that could potentially improve patient outcomes.

Biological role and expression of translationally controlled tumor protein (TCTP) in tumorigenesis and development and its potential for targeted tumor therapy

“…The finding suggested that elevated levels of TCTP expression are indicative of increased tumor invasiveness and poorer clinical prognosis [ 27 ]. Simultaneously, a growing body of evidence has suggested that TCTP can hold promise as a clinically relevant biomarker for the identification of low-differentiated and invasive breast cancer [ 134 , 135 ].…”