Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Glutaminase expression is a poor prognostic factor in node-positive triple-negative breast cancer patients with a high level of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Virchows Archiv Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Glutamine metabolism is emerging as one aspect of dysregulated metabolism of tumors. Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) cells are glutamine dependent, whereas luminal-type cells tend to be glutamine independent. Therefore, TNBC patients might benefit from therapies targeting glutamine metabolism. To investigate the clinical significance of glutamine metabolism, we examined expression and prognostic significance of glutaminase in tumor cells and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in TNBC. We retrieved 658 surgically resected TNBCs and analyzed glutaminase expression in tumor cells and TILs by immunohistochemical staining. Glutaminase expression was observed in 237 cases (36.0%) in tumor cells and 104 cases (15.5%) in TILs. Although glutaminase expression in tumor cells was significantly associated with a low level of TILs (p = 0.018), glutaminase expression in TILs was significantly higher in cases with a high level of TILs (p = 0.031). Glutaminase expression in tumor cells was significantly associated with poor disease-free survival in patients with lymph node metastasis and high levels of TILs (p = 0.020). In addition, it was an independent poor prognostic factor (hazard ratio = 10.643, 95% confidence interval = 1.999–56.668; p = 0.006). Glutaminase expression in tumor cells was observed in a subset of TNBC patients. It was significantly associated with a low level of TILs and poor disease-free survival in TNBCs presenting with lymph node metastasis and high levels of TILs.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Kung HN, Marks JR, Chi JT (2011) Glutamine synthetase is a genetic determinant of cell type-specific glutamine independence in breast epithelia. PLoS Genet 7:e1002229. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1002229

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Hsu PP, Sabatini DM (2008) Cancer cell metabolism: Warburg and beyond. Cell 134:703–707. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2008.08.021

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Tennant DA, Duran RV, Gottlieb E (2010) Targeting metabolic transformation for cancer therapy. Nat Rev Cancer 10:267–277. doi:10.1038/nrc2817

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Warburg O (1956) On respiratory impairment in cancer cells. Science 124:269–270

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. DeBerardinis RJ, Cheng T (2010) Q’s next: the diverse functions of glutamine in metabolism, cell biology and cancer. Oncogene 29:313–324. doi:10.1038/onc.2009.358

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Wise DR, Thompson CB (2010) Glutamine addiction: a new therapeutic target in cancer. Trends Biochem Sci 35:427–433. doi:10.1016/j.tibs.2010.05.003

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  7. Yuneva M, Zamboni N, Oefner P, Sachidanandam R, Lazebnik Y (2007) Deficiency in glutamine but not glucose induces MYC-dependent apoptosis in human cells. J Cell Biol 178:93–105. doi:10.1083/jcb.200703099

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Wise DR, DeBerardinis RJ, Mancuso A, Sayed N, Zhang XY, Pfeiffer HK, Nissim I, Daikhin E, Yudkoff M, McMahon SB, Thompson CB (2008) Myc regulates a transcriptional program that stimulates mitochondrial glutaminolysis and leads to glutamine addiction. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 105:18782–18787. doi:10.1073/pnas.0810199105

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  9. Gao P, Tchernyshyov I, Chang TC, Lee YS, Kita K, Ochi T, Zeller KI, De Marzo AM, Van Eyk JE, Mendell JT, Dang CV (2009) c-Myc suppression of miR-23a/b enhances mitochondrial glutaminase expression and glutamine metabolism. Nature 458:762–765. doi:10.1038/nature07823

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  10. Yang C, Sudderth J, Dang T, Bachoo RM, McDonald JG, DeBerardinis RJ (2009) Glioblastoma cells require glutamate dehydrogenase to survive impairments of glucose metabolism or Akt signaling. Cancer Res 69:7986–7993. doi:10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-09-2266

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  11. van den Heuvel AP, Jing J, Wooster RF, Bachman KE (2012) Analysis of glutamine dependency in non-small cell lung cancer: GLS1 splice variant GAC is essential for cancer cell growth. Cancer Biol Ther 13:1185–1194. doi:10.4161/cbt.21348

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  12. Wang JB, Erickson JW, Fuji R, Ramachandran S, Gao P, Dinavahi R, Wilson KF, Ambrosio AL, Dias SM, Dang CV, Cerione RA (2010) Targeting mitochondrial glutaminase activity inhibits oncogenic transformation. Cancer Cell 18:207–219. doi:10.1016/j.ccr.2010.08.009

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  13. Kaadige MR, Looper RE, Kamalanaadhan S, Ayer DE (2009) Glutamine-dependent anapleurosis dictates glucose uptake and cell growth by regulating MondoA transcriptional activity. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 106:14878–14883. doi:10.1073/pnas.0901221106

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  14. Loi S, Sirtaine N, Piette F, Salgado R, Viale G, Van Eenoo F, Rouas G, Francis P, Crown JP, Hitre E, de Azambuja E, Quinaux E, Di Leo A, Michiels S, Piccart MJ, Sotiriou C (2013) Prognostic and predictive value of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in a phase III randomized adjuvant breast cancer trial in node-positive breast cancer comparing the addition of docetaxel to doxorubicin with doxorubicin-based chemotherapy: BIG 02-98. J Clin Oncol 31:860–867. doi:10.1200/JCO.2011.41.0902

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Adams S, Gray RJ, Demaria S, Goldstein L, Perez EA, Shulman LN, Martino S, Wang M, Jones VE, Saphner TJ, Wolff AC, Wood WC, Davidson NE, Sledge GW, Sparano JA, Badve SS (2014) Prognostic value of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in triple-negative breast cancers from two phase III randomized adjuvant breast cancer trials: ECOG 2197 and ECOG 1199. J Clin Oncol. doi:10.1200/JCO.2013.55.0491

    Google Scholar 

  16. Ahn SG, Jeong J, Hong S, Jung WH (2015) Current issues and clinical evidence in tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in breast cancer. J Pathol Transl Med 49:355–363. doi:10.4132/jptm.2015.07.29

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  17. Mockler MB, Conroy MJ, Lysaght J (2014) Targeting T cell immunometabolism for cancer immunotherapy; understanding the impact of the tumor microenvironment. Front Oncol 4:107. doi:10.3389/fonc.2014.00107

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  18. Chang CH, Qiu J, O’Sullivan D, Buck MD, Noguchi T, Curtis JD, Chen Q, Gindin M, Gubin MM, van der Windt GJ, Tonc E, Schreiber RD, Pearce EJ, Pearce EL (2015) Metabolic competition in the tumor microenvironment is a driver of cancer progression. Cell 162:1229–1241. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2015.08.016

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  19. Denkert C, Loibl S, Noske A, Roller M, Muller BM, Komor M, Budczies J, Darb-Esfahani S, Kronenwett R, Hanusch C, von Torne C, Weichert W, Engels K, Solbach C, Schrader I, Dietel M, von Minckwitz G (2010) Tumor-associated lymphocytes as an independent predictor of response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer. J Clin Oncol 28:105–113. doi:10.1200/JCO.2009.23.7370

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Salgado R, Denkert C, Demaria S, Sirtaine N, Klauschen F, Pruneri G, Wienert S, Van den Eynden G, Baehner FL, Penault-Llorca F, Perez EA, Thompson EA, Symmans WF, Richardson AL, Brock J, Criscitiello C, Bailey H, Ignatiadis M, Floris G, Sparano J, Kos Z, Nielsen T, Rimm DL, Allison KH, Reis-Filho JS, Loibl S, Sotiriou C, Viale G, Badve S, Adams S, Willard-Gallo K, Loi S, International TWG (2015) The evaluation of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in breast cancer: recommendations by an International TILs Working Group 2014. Ann Oncol 26:259–271. doi:10.1093/annonc/mdu450

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Lakhani SREI, Schnitt SJ, Tan PH, van de Vijver MJ (eds) (2012) WHO classification of tumours of the breast. International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon

  22. Lee HJ, Seo AN, Park SY, Kim JY, Park JY, Yu JH, Ahn JH, Gong G (2014) Low prognostic implication of fibroblast growth factor family activation in triple-negative breast cancer subsets. Ann Surg Oncol 21:1561–1568. doi:10.1245/s10434-013-3456-x

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Hammond ME, Hayes DF, Wolff AC, Mangu PB, Temin S (2010) American Society of Clinical Oncology/College of American Pathologists guideline recommendations for immunohistochemical testing of estrogen and progesterone receptors in breast cancer. J Oncol Pract 6:195–197. doi:10.1200/JOP.777003

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  24. Wolff AC, Hammond ME, Hicks DG, Dowsett M, McShane LM, Allison KH, Allred DC, Bartlett JM, Bilous M, Fitzgibbons P, Hanna W, Jenkins RB, Mangu PB, Paik S, Perez EA, Press MF, Spears PA, Vance GH, Viale G, Hayes DF (2013) Recommendations for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 testing in breast cancer: American Society of Clinical Oncology/College of American Pathologists Clinical Practice guideline update. Arch Pathol Lab Med. doi:10.5858/arpa.2013-0953-SA

    Google Scholar 

  25. Kim S, Kim Do H, Jung WH, Koo JS (2013) Expression of glutamine metabolism-related proteins according to molecular subtype of breast cancer. Endocr Relat Cancer 20:339–348. doi:10.1530/ERC-12-0398

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Collins CL, Wasa M, Souba WW, Abcouwer SF (1997) Regulation of glutamine synthetase in human breast carcinoma cells and experimental tumors. Surgery 122:451–463 discussion 463-454

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Lee HJ, Park IA, Song IH, Shin SJ, Kim JY, Yu JH, Gong G (2016) Tertiary lymphoid structures: prognostic significance and relationship with tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes in triple-negative breast cancer. J Clin Pathol 69:422–430. doi:10.1136/jclinpath-2015-203089

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Briggs KJ, Koivunen P, Cao S, Backus KM, Olenchock BA, Patel H, Zhang Q, Signoretti S, Gerfen GJ, Richardson AL, Witkiewicz AK, Cravatt BF, Clardy J, Kaelin WG Jr (2016) Paracrine induction of HIF by glutamate in breast cancer: EglN1 senses cysteine. Cell 166:126–139. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2016.05.042

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. Chen X, Iliopoulos D, Zhang Q, Tang Q, Greenblatt MB, Hatziapostolou M, Lim E, Tam WL, Ni M, Chen Y, Mai J, Shen H, Hu DZ, Adoro S, Hu B, Song M, Tan C, Landis MD, Ferrari M, Shin SJ, Brown M, Chang JC, Liu XS, Glimcher LH (2014) XBP1 promotes triple-negative breast cancer by controlling the HIF1alpha pathway. Nature 508:103–107. doi:10.1038/nature13119

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  30. Chaturvedi P, Gilkes DM, Wong CC, Kshitiz LW, Zhang H, Wei H, Takano N, Schito L, Levchenko A, Semenza GL (2013) Hypoxia-inducible factor-dependent breast cancer-mesenchymal stem cell bidirectional signaling promotes metastasis. J Clin Invest 123:189–205. doi:10.1172/JCI64993

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Sreekumar A, Poisson LM, Rajendiran TM, Khan AP, Cao Q, Yu J, Laxman B, Mehra R, Lonigro RJ, Li Y, Nyati MK, Ahsan A, Kalyana-Sundaram S, Han B, Cao X, Byun J, Omenn GS, Ghosh D, Pennathur S, Alexander DC, Berger A, Shuster JR, Wei JT, Varambally S, Beecher C, Chinnaiyan AM (2009) Metabolomic profiles delineate potential role for sarcosine in prostate cancer progression. Nature 457:910–914. doi:10.1038/nature07762

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  32. Vander Heiden MG (2011) Targeting cancer metabolism: a therapeutic window opens. Nat Rev Drug Discov 10:671–684. doi:10.1038/nrd3504

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Parsons DW, Jones S, Zhang X, Lin JC, Leary RJ, Angenendt P, Mankoo P, Carter H, Siu IM, Gallia GL, Olivi A, McLendon R, Rasheed BA, Keir S, Nikolskaya T, Nikolsky Y, Busam DA, Tekleab H, Diaz LA Jr, Hartigan J, Smith DR, Strausberg RL, Marie SK, Shinjo SM, Yan H, Riggins GJ, Bigner DD, Karchin R, Papadopoulos N, Parmigiani G, Vogelstein B, Velculescu VE, Kinzler KW (2008) An integrated genomic analysis of human glioblastoma multiforme. Science 321:1807–1812. doi:10.1126/science.1164382

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  34. Dang L, White DW, Gross S, Bennett BD, Bittinger MA, Driggers EM, Fantin VR, Jang HG, Jin S, Keenan MC, Marks KM, Prins RM, Ward PS, Yen KE, Liau LM, Rabinowitz JD, Cantley LC, Thompson CB, Vander Heiden MG, Su SM (2009) Cancer-associated IDH1 mutations produce 2-hydroxyglutarate. Nature 462:739–744. doi:10.1038/nature08617

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  35. Ward PS, Patel J, Wise DR, Abdel-Wahab O, Bennett BD, Coller HA, Cross JR, Fantin VR, Hedvat CV, Perl AE, Rabinowitz JD, Carroll M, Su SM, Sharp KA, Levine RL, Thompson CB (2010) The common feature of leukemia-associated IDH1 and IDH2 mutations is a neomorphic enzyme activity converting alpha-ketoglutarate to 2-hydroxyglutarate. Cancer Cell 17:225–234. doi:10.1016/j.ccr.2010.01.020

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  36. Figueroa ME, Abdel-Wahab O, Lu C, Ward PS, Patel J, Shih A, Li Y, Bhagwat N, Vasanthakumar A, Fernandez HF, Tallman MS, Sun Z, Wolniak K, Peeters JK, Liu W, Choe SE, Fantin VR, Paietta E, Lowenberg B, Licht JD, Godley LA, Delwel R, Valk PJ, Thompson CB, Levine RL, Melnick A (2010) Leukemic IDH1 and IDH2 mutations result in a hypermethylation phenotype, disrupt TET2 function, and impair hematopoietic differentiation. Cancer Cell 18:553–567. doi:10.1016/j.ccr.2010.11.015

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  37. Swamy M, Pathak S, Grzes KM, Damerow S, Sinclair LV, van Aalten DM, Cantrell DA (2016) Glucose and glutamine fuel protein O-GlcNAcylation to control T cell self-renewal and malignancy. Nat Immunol 17:712–720. doi:10.1038/ni.3439

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (2015R1C1A1A02036484) and the Asan Institute for Life Sciences, Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Korea (2016-732).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathology, Korea University Anam Hospital, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea

    Joo Young Kim

  2. Department of Pathology, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Asan Medical Center, 88 Olympic-ro 43-gil, Songpa-gu, Seoul, 138-736, South Korea

    Sun-Hee Heo, Seul Ki Choi, In Hye Song, In Ah Park, Young-Ae Kim, Hye Seon Park, Suk Young Park, Won Seon Bang, Gyungyub Gong & Hee Jin Lee

  3. Asan Center for Cancer Genome Discovery, Asan Institute for Life Sciences, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Asan Medical Center, Seoul, South Korea

    Sun-Hee Heo, Seul Ki Choi, Young-Ae Kim, Hye Seon Park, Suk Young Park & Won Seon Bang

Authors
  1. Joo Young Kim
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sun-Hee Heo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Seul Ki Choi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. In Hye Song
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. In Ah Park
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Young-Ae Kim
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Hye Seon Park
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Suk Young Park
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Won Seon Bang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Gyungyub Gong
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. Hee Jin Lee
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hee Jin Lee.

Ethics declarations

This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Asan Medical Center and confirmed to the provisions of the Declaration of Helsinki.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Joo Young Kim and Sun-Hee Heo contributed equally to this article.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kim, J.Y., Heo, SH., Choi, S.K. et al. Glutaminase expression is a poor prognostic factor in node-positive triple-negative breast cancer patients with a high level of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes. Virchows Arch 470, 381–389 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-017-2083-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-017-2083-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation