Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 12, 2025
Studying Triple Negative Breast Cancer Using Orthotopic Breast Cancer Model
Published on: March 20, 2020
SUV39H1 Expression as a Guideline for Omitting Radiotherapy in Lymph Node-positive Triple-negative Breast Cancer
Wei-Lun Huang1,2, Chi-Wen Luo3, Huei-Shan Lin3
1Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Background/Aim:
The role of postoperative radiotherapy (RT) combined with chemotherapy (CT) for lymph node-positive (LN+) triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) remains controversial. SUV39H1-mediated epigenetic regulation is associated with cancer cell migration, invasion, metastasis, and treatment resistance. This study aims to identify the role of SUV39H1 in TNBCs.
Materials And Methods:
Overall, 498 TNBCs with SUV39H1 RNA-seq profiles were retrieved from TCGA-BRCA and analyzed; the X-tile algorithm was used to stratify the population into low, intermediate, and high SUV39H1. Furthermore, we performed an in vitro clonogenic cell survival assay using the MDA-MB-231 cell line to assess the effects of SUV39H1 on cellular responses.
Results:
The results showed that SUV39H1 was significantly higher in TNBC than normal tissue and luminal subtype breast cancer. Notably, SUV39H1 is significantly expressed in the basal-like 1 (BL1) and immunomodulatory (IM) subgroups, compared to other subtypes. Compared to patients with a low or medium expression of SUV39H1, omitting RT only worsens disease-free survival (DFS) in those with high SUV39H1 expression. The experimental results showed SUV39H1 was suppressed by si-SUV39H1, and SUV39H1 knockdown in MDA-MB-231-IV2-1 cells enhanced the cellular toxicity of doxorubicin and paclitaxel.
Conclusion:
Targeting SUV39H1 may provide a potential guiding indication of omitting RT to avoid over-treatment and chemosensitivity for TNBC.
