Low CRIM1 Levels Predict Poor Prognosis in Breast Cancer Patients

CRIM1 is involved in the development and preservation of the nervous system, capillary development, and vascular maintenance. Although CRIM1 was reported to involve in multiple cancers, its role in breast cancer is unclear.

We investigated CRIM1 expression levels using Oncomine, HPA, and immunohistochemistry analyses. BC-GenExMiner was employed to evaluate the relationship of CRIM1 expression with the clinicopathological characteristics of breast cancer. Its association with breast cancer prognosis was assessed by Kaplan-Meier analysis and PrognoScan. The correlation of the expression of CRIM1 with tumor immune infiltration was explored via TIMER. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was utilized to determine the cascades that are linked to CRIM1 in breast cancer. Finally, we explored CRIM1 and its co-expressed genes using R (3.6.3).

Here, we find that CRIM1 expression was downregulated in various subtypes of breast cancer, and it was lowest in triple-negative breast cancers. ER and PR status were positively correlated with CRIM1 expression, while HER-2 expression was negatively correlated with CRIM1 expression. But in our immunohistochemical results in breast cancer specimens collected from our laboratory, HER-2 expression was positively correlated with CRIM1 expression. The expression of CRIM1 was correlated with menopause status, T stage, pathologic stage, histological type, and P53 status but not with age, N-stage, M-stage, Radiation therapy, and BRCA1/2 status. Survival analysis found that low CRIM1 expression was correlated with poorer DMFS, RFS and OS. Notably, CRIM1 expression was positively linked to the level of infiltration by CD8⁺ T-cells, endothelial cells, and neutrophils, and negatively linked to NK, B-cells, CD4⁺ T-cells, tumor purity, macrophage M1, and Tregs. Besides, DIXDC1 and PFDN6 were correlated to CRIM1 possibly.

Our findings demonstrated that low CRIM1 expression predict poor prognosis of breast cancer and CRIM1 might be used as a possible treatment target or prognostic marker in breast cancer. More researches are needed to better understand the prognostic value of CRIM1 in breast cancer.