Clinical implications of GRHL3 protein expression in breast cancer

The objective of this study was to investigate the expression and significance of the GRHL3 protein in breast cancer diagnosis and prognosis. Overall, 111 patients with histologically confirmed breast cancer who had undergone radical surgery were enrolled in this study. The GRHL3 protein expression status in the breast cancers was evaluated by immunohistochemistry. The relationship between GRHL3 protein expression status and clinicopathological factors and the breast cancer prognoses was also determined. In total, 71 (63.96%) out of 111 cases were found to express GRHL3 protein. GRHL3 expression was higher in breast cancers, compared to other pathologic cancer types (χ (2) = 5.68, P < 0.05). Moreover, GRHL3 protein was also observed to correlate with breast cancer clinical stage and histological grade (χ (2) = 7.99, P < 0.05 and χ (2) = 7.907, P < 0.05, respectively). Interestingly, triple-negative breast cancers had lower expression rates than other breast cancers (41.18 vs. 71.28%, P < 0.05). GRHL3 was shown to be an independent prognostic factor of breast cancer in Cox regression analysis. Altogether, our results indicate predominant GRHL3 expression in breast cancers, especially non-triple-negative cancers and early stage cancers. GRHL3 expression appeared to decrease with tumor progression. Survival analysis demonstrated the inhibitory effect of GRHL3 in breast cancer. These results strongly suggest the possible involvement of GRHL3 in tumor suppression.