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TACC3 expression as a prognostic factor in aggressive types of adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma patients
Mayuko Moritsubo1, Hiroaki Miyoshi1, Kotaro Matsuda1,2
1Department of Pathology, Kurume University School of medicine, Kurume, Fukuoka, Japan.
Introduction:
Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL) is a malignant peripheral T-cell neoplasm associated with human T-cell leukemia virus type-1 (HTLV-1). The acute and lymphoma subtypes are regarded as aggressive ATLLs, and the overall survival (OS) of patients remains poor. Transforming acidic coiled-coil-containing protein 3 (TACC3) regulates microtubules, which are associated with cancer-related proteins overexpressed in various cancers. Such a relationship has not been reported in hematopoietic tumors, including ATLL.
Methods:
We examined tissue microarrays of histological samples from 92 cases of aggressive ATLL and assessed clinical features, including TACC3 protein expression levels.
Results:
Compared with TACC3-low, TACC3-high ATLL patients were significantly older (P < .001), with a tendency toward pleomorphic variant over other morphological classifications (P = .019). TACC3-high patients (median survival time [MST] 10.6 months, confidence interval [CI] [6.27-15.6]) had poorer OS compared to TACC3-low patients (MST 20 months, CI [9.43-38.5]) (P = .0168). Moreover, multivariate analysis on TACC3 expression levels suggests that TACC3-high is an independent significant prognostic factor (HR, 1.700; 95% CI, 1.037-2.753; P = .0355).
Conclusion:
Certain drugs that inhibit TACC3-overexpressing neoplastic cells are used clinically. Further studies might highlight a key role for TACC3 in the oncogenesis and progression of ATLL.
