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Poor prognosis of patients with triple-negative breast cancer can be stratified by RANK and RANKL dual expression

  • Preclinical study
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Breast Cancer Research and Treatment Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

As clinical studies have correlated RANK expression levels with survival in breast cancer, and that RANK signaling is dependent on its cognate ligand RANKL, we hypothesized that dual protein expression further stratifies the poor outcome in TNBC.

Methods

RANK mRNA and protein expression was evaluated in TNBC using genomic databases, cell lines and in a tissue microarray of curated primary tumor samples derived from 87 patients with TNBC. RANK expression was evaluated either by Mann–Whitney U test on log-normalized gene expression data or by Student’s t test on FACS data. Analysis of RANK and RANKL immunostaining was calculated by H-score, and correlations to clinical factors performed using χ 2 or Fisher’s exact test. Associations with RFS and OS were assessed using univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazard models. Survival estimates were generated using the Kaplan–Meier method.

Results

In three distinct datasets spanning 684 samples, RANK mRNA expression was higher in primary tumors derived from TNBC patients than from those with other molecular subtypes (P < 0.01). Cell surface-localized RANK protein was consistently higher in TNBC cell lines (P = 0.037). In clinical samples, TNBC patients that expressed both RANK and RANKL proteins had significantly worse RFS (P = 0.0032) and OS (P = 0.004) than patients with RANK-positive, RANKL-negative tumors. RANKL was an independent, poor prognostic factor for RFS (P = 0.04) and OS (P = 0.01) in multivariate analysis in samples that expressed both RANK and RANKL.

Conclusions

RANK and RANKL co-expression is associated with poor RFS and OS in patients with TNBC.

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Abbreviations

ER:

Estrogen receptor

FACS:

Fluorescence-activated cell sorting

HER2:

Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2

OS:

Overall survival

PR:

Progesterone receptor

RANK:

Receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa B

RANKL:

RANK ligand

RFS:

Relapse-free survival

TNBC:

Triple-negative breast cancer

TMA:

Tissue microarray

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Acknowledgements

We thank Stephanie Deming for providing editorial support on behalf of Scientific Publications at MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Albert Rhee for providing medical writing support on behalf of Amgen, Inc.

Author’s contribution

Amgen, Inc. funded the study and supported the authors in the development of the study design, and in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data. MER, TF, DB, HM, BLE, WCD, and NU contributed to the study conception and design; MER, TF, DB, BLE, SK, XW, JR, WW, GH, DT, WCD, and NU contributed to the collection, and analysis of data; MER, TF, DB, BLE, HM, BJE, SK, XW, JMR, WAW, GNH, DT, WCD, and NTU contributed to the interpretation of the data and development of the manuscript. Medical writing support was provided by Amgen, Inc. The decision to submit was taken jointly by all authors and Amgen, Inc. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. All authors agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Funding

Funding support for this study was provided by Amgen, Inc. Technical support for generation of flow cytometry data was provided by The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Flow Cytometry and Cellular Imaging Core Facility, funded by the National Cancer Institute Cancer Support Grant P30CA16672.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Monica E. Reyes and Takeo Fujii have contributed equally to the manuscript.

    Bedrich L. Eckhardt and Naoto T. Ueno are co-senior authors.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Morgan Welch Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Program and Clinic, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA

    Monica E. Reyes, Takeo Fujii, Savitri Krishnamurthy, Hiroko Masuda, Xiaoping Wang, James M. Reuben, Wendy A. Woodward, Gabriel N. Hortobagyi, Debu Tripathy, Bedrich L. Eckhardt & Naoto T. Ueno

  2. Section of Translational Breast Cancer Research, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA

    Monica E. Reyes, Hiroko Masuda, Xiaoping Wang, Gabriel N. Hortobagyi, Debu Tripathy, Bedrich L. Eckhardt & Naoto T. Ueno

  3. Department of Breast Medical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Unit 1354, 1515 Holcombe Blvd., Houston, TX, 77030, USA

    Monica E. Reyes, Takeo Fujii, Hiroko Masuda, Xiaoping Wang, Gabriel N. Hortobagyi, Debu Tripathy, Bedrich L. Eckhardt & Naoto T. Ueno

  4. Department of Pathology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA

    Savitri Krishnamurthy

  5. Department of Hematopathology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA

    James M. Reuben

  6. Department of Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA

    Wendy A. Woodward

  7. Department of General Internal Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA

    Beatrice J. Edwards

  8. The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health, Houston, TX, USA

    Takeo Fujii

  9. Department of Pathology, Amgen, Inc., Seattle, WA, USA

    Daniel Branstetter

  10. Hematology and Oncology Research, Amgen, Inc., Seattle, WA, USA

    William C. Dougall

Authors
  1. Monica E. Reyes
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  2. Takeo Fujii
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  3. Daniel Branstetter
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  12. William C. Dougall
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  13. Bedrich L. Eckhardt
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  14. Naoto T. Ueno
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Bedrich L. Eckhardt or Naoto T. Ueno.

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Conflict of interest

Author NU is principal investigator of the above-mentioned study of denosumab (NCT01952054), which is supported by Amgen, Inc. Authors WCD and DB are former employees and shareholders of Amgen, Inc. Authors MER, TF, SK, HM, XW, JMR, WAW, BJE, GNH, DT, BLE declare no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

Informed consent

This study adhered to ethical guidelines at MD Anderson Cancer Center and the IRB study protocol (LAB05-0530).

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Reyes, M.E., Fujii, T., Branstetter, D. et al. Poor prognosis of patients with triple-negative breast cancer can be stratified by RANK and RANKL dual expression. Breast Cancer Res Treat 164, 57–67 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-017-4233-5

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