High MAL2 expression predicts shorter survival in women with triple-negative breast cancer

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Molecular Biology
• Cancer Research

Background:

• Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) presents therapeutic challenges due to a lack of targeted receptors.
• Overexpression of MAL2 protein is linked to endocytosis and resistance to emerging cancer treatments.
• Understanding prognostic markers in TNBC is crucial for improving patient outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the prognostic significance of MAL2 expression in triple-negative breast cancer.
• To determine the relationship between MAL2, PD-1/PD-L1, and clinicopathological features in TNBC.
• To evaluate MAL2 as a potential biomarker for TNBC patient survival.

Main Methods:

• Immunohistochemical analysis of MAL2 and PD-1 expression in 111 TNBC samples from 76 patients.
• Validation using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) cohort for survival analysis.
• Statistical evaluation of MAL2 expression in relation to clinicopathological variables and patient survival.

Main Results:

• High MAL2 expression was significantly associated with lower 5-year survival rates in TNBC patients (71.33% vs. 89.59%).
• Low MAL2 expression predicted longer overall and disease-specific survival in both tissue microarray and TCGA cohorts.
• MAL2 expression was independent of PD-1 levels and common TNBC clinicopathological features, but associated with age in the BRCA TCGA cohort.

Conclusions:

• Elevated MAL2 expression serves as an independent predictor of unfavorable prognosis in triple-negative breast cancer.
• MAL2's prognostic value in TNBC is not influenced by PD-1 expression or standard clinicopathological parameters.
• MAL2 warrants further investigation as a potential therapeutic target or prognostic biomarker for TNBC.