High expression of PALB2 predicts poor prognosis in patients with advanced breast cancer

PALB2 mutation is associated with increased breast cancer risk; however, PALB2 mutation is rare in sporadic breast cancer cases and little is known about PALB2 expression in breast cancer. Here, we evaluated the prognostic effects of PALB2 with tissue microarray specimens of 117 female breast cancer patients, and determined the potential underlying mechanisms in cell models. In immunohistochemical analysis, we found increased expression of PALB2 in breast cancer tissues compared with the adjacent normal ductal epithelium (P < 0.001). Higher PALB2 scores were positively associated with histological grade and higher PALB2 expression was found in patients that were Her-2 negative compared with those that were positive (P < 0.05). Interestingly, higher expression of PALB2 was significantly associated with poorer overall survival (P < 0.01) in patients with stage III or nearby lymph node metastasis (N1, N2 or N3). In vitro studies found that PALB2 may promote the migration and invasion of MDA-MB-231 cells through E-cadherin suppression and NF-κB activation. In conclusion, these results suggest that PALB2 expression levels may serve as a novel prognostic factor for breast cancer patients.