Flotillin-2 is associated with breast cancer progression and poor survival outcomes

Flotillin-2 (FLOT2) has been implicated in several signaling pathways in tumor cells. Our study aimed to investigate the expression pattern and clinicopathological significance of FLOT2 in patients with breast cancer.

The expression level of FLOT2 in normal breast epithelial cells, breast cancer cell lines, and four breast cancer biopsies paired with adjacent noncancerous tissues were quantified using real-time RT-PCR and Western blotting. FLOT2 protein expression was analyzed in 171 archived paraffin-embedded breast cancer samples using immunohistochemistry (IHC). Statistical analyses were performed to evaluate the clinicopathological significance of FLOT2 expression.

FLOT2 was significantly upregulated in breast cancer cell lines and tissue samples compared with normal cells and adjacent noncancerous breast tissues, respectively. IHC analysis revealed high expression levels of FLOT2 in 82 of 171 (48.0%) breast cancer specimens. Statistical analysis revealed that FLOT2 expression was significantly correlated with clinical stage (P < 0.001), T classification (P < 0.001), M classification (P < 0.001), histological differentiation (P = 0.005) and ErbB2 expression (P = 0.003). Patients with higher levels of FLOT2 expression had a shorter overall survival duration than patients with lower FLOT2 expression levels. Multivariate analysis suggested that FLOT2 expression was an independent prognostic marker for survival in patients with breast cancer.

The current results demonstrated that high FLOT2 protein expression was associated with poor outcomes in patients with breast cancer. FLOT2 could be used as a prognostic biomarker for breast cancer progression.