Lin28B Expression Correlates with Aggressive Clinicopathological Characteristics in Breast Invasive Ductal Carcinoma

Abstract

Lin28B is a RNA-binding protein that inhibits the let-7 microRNA family and acts as an oncogene in various human malignant diseases. Conversely, the members of let-7 family function as tumor suppressers and are often inactivated in cancers. The interaction of Lin28B/let-7 plays a crucial part of tumorigenesis. In this study, the authors examined the Lin28B expression using immunohistochemistry in 190 breast cancers and analyzed the correlation of Lin28B immunostaining and clinicopathological characteristics. Breast cancer patients previously diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinomas were enrolled in this study. All cases went through surgical procedures as the initial treatment. The characteristics of every case were collected, including tumor size, pathologic grade, metastatic lymphoid nodes, and estrogen receptor α (ERα), progesterone receptor (PR), and HER2 status. The immunostaining was scored by two independent investigators. Eighty-three (43.7%) of 190 cases showed positive expression of Lin28B. Lin28B immunostaining was increased in tumors compared with the adjacent tissues. Overexpression of Lin28B was linked to poor differentiation, advanced-stage disease, and Ki67-positive status (all p<0.05). Besides, Lin28B expression was significantly different among breast cancer subtypes. This study addresses the role of Lin28B in breast cancers and provides insight of its predictive effects in disease development.

The LIN28/let-7 Pathway in Cancer

“…Furthermore, LIN28A and LIN28B expression is correlated with HER2-positive and triple negative breast cancer, respectively. Multiple research groups have independently validated this result using immunohistochemical methods and analysis of TCGA breast cancer samples (Feng et al, 2012; Xie et al, 2014; Shen et al, 2016). To date, no GEM models have been reported to date that faithfully recapitulate LIN28A expression in HER2+ or LIN28B in triple negative breast cancer.…”

MicroRNAs: New Biomarkers for Diagnosis, Prognosis, Therapy Prediction and Therapeutic Tools for Breast Cancer

“…Overall, the main mechanisms affected by downregulated miRNAs are cell cycle, proliferation, and metastasis diffusion. Among all, the aforementioned members of the let-7 family are particularly relevant for BC development, as they function physiologically as tumor suppressors and are often inactivated in cancer 175 , 176 . let-7 miRNAs have been demonstrated to regulate multiple oncogenes, such as RAS, high-mobility group AT-hook 2 (HMGA2), c-Myc, and caspase-3 177 - 180 , and several genes involved in the maintenance of stem cell phenotype 181 .…”

The network of pluripotency, epithelial&ndash;mesenchymal transition, and prognosis of breast cancer

“… 159 In addition, LIN28B was associated with aggressive clinicopathologic characteristics, such as lymph node positivity and expression of the proliferation marker Ki67, in a series of 190 breast cancer patients. 160 …”