YB1 Is a Major Contributor to Health Disparities in Triple Negative Breast Cancer

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is the most aggressive amongst all breast cancer (BC) subtypes. While TNBC tumors represent less than 20% of all BC subtypes, they are responsible for the most BC-related deaths. More significantly, when considering TNBC incidence across all racial/ethnic groups, TNBC accounts for less than 20% of all BCs. However, in non-Hispanic black women, the incidence rate of TNBC is more than 40%, which may be a contributing factor to the higher BC-related death rate in this population. These disparities remain strong even after accounting for differences in socioeconomic status, healthcare access, and lifestyle factors. Increased evidence now points to biological mechanisms that are intrinsic to the tumor that contribute to disparate TNBC disease burdens. Here, we show that YB1, a multifunction gene, plays a major role in the TNBC disparities between African American (AA) and Caucasian American (CA) women. We show in three independent TNBC tumors cohorts, that YB1 is significantly highly expressed in AA TNBC tumors when compared to CAs, and that increased levels of YB1 correlate with poor survival of AA patients with TNBC. We used a combination of genetic manipulation of YB1 and chemotherapy treatment, both in vitro and in animal models of TNBC to show that YB1 oncogenic activity is more enhanced in TNBC cell lines of AA origin, by increasing their tumorigenic and aggressive behaviors, trough the activation of cancer stem cell phenotype and resistance to chemotherapeutic treatments.