Clinical implications of CSN6 protein expression and correlation with mutant-type P53 protein in breast cancer

Constitutive photomorphogenesis 9 subunit 6, as one subunit of the constitutive photomorphogenesis 9, plays an important role in tumor development. The aim of the study was to investigate the clinical and prognostic implications of constitutive photomorphogenesis 9 subunit 6 protein in breast cancer.

We examined mastectomy specimens from 92 invasive breast cancers and matched with 20 adjacent non-cancerous tissues using immunohistochemistry.

The positive expressions of constitutive photomorphogenesis 9 subunit 6 protein in invasive breast cancer and adjacent non-cancerous tissue were 32.61% (30 of 92) and 10% (2 of 20), respectively. The positive expression of constitutive photomorphogenesis 9 subunit 6 protein was related to tumor size, histological type and lymph node metastasis (P = 0.015, 0.009 and 0.009, respectively). After univariate analysis, constitutive photomorphogenesis 9 subunit 6-positive expression was only found to be significantly related to mutant-type P53 expression (P < 0.001). Spearman's correlation analysis was used to demonstrate negative correlations between constitutive photomorphogenesis 9 subunit 6 and mutant-type P53 (r = -0.417). Constitutive photomorphogenesis 9 subunit 6 positive was associated with both poorer breast cancer-specific survival in 92 cases and in the lymph node-positive group (P = 0.007 and 0.024, respectively). In the Cox regression test, constitutive photomorphogenesis 9 subunit 6 protein was not shown to be an independent prognostic factor for breast cancer.

Constitutive photomorphogenesis 9 subunit 6 might be a new potential biomarker for breast cancer. However, the underlying mechanisms of constitutive photomorphogenesis 9 subunit 6's involvement are still unclear.