Gas6 expression is reduced in advanced breast cancers

Ayman M Ibrahim; Zane Gray; Angelica M Gomes; Leann Myers; Fariba Behbod; Heather L Machado

doi:10.1038/s41698-020-0116-z

Gas6 expression is reduced in advanced breast cancers

NPJ Precis Oncol. 2020 Apr 24:4:9. doi: 10.1038/s41698-020-0116-z. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Ayman M Ibrahim^#^{1

2}, Zane Gray^#¹, Angelica M Gomes^#¹, Leann Myers³, Fariba Behbod⁴, Heather L Machado¹

Affiliations

¹ 1Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Tulane Cancer Center, Tulane School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA USA.
² 2Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt.
³ 3Department of Biostatistics and Data Science, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA USA.
⁴ 4Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS USA.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Growth arrest-specific gene 6 (Gas6) is a cytokine that binds to receptor tyrosine kinases Tyro3, Axl, and Mer. Numerous studies have suggested that macrophage-derived Gas6 interacts with Axl to promote cancer progression, and Axl has been associated with poor clinical outcome. However, the expression and relevance of Gas6 in human breast cancer patients has not been studied. Analysis of tissue microarrays showed that Gas6 was highly expressed in ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) but markedly decreased in invasive breast cancer. Gas6 and Axl were weakly correlated, suggesting that their functions may not exclusively rely on each other. Analyses of publicly available databases showed significantly improved overall and relapse-free survival in patients with high Gas6 mRNA, particularly in luminal A breast cancers. These findings indicate that tumor-derived Gas6 is not overexpressed in invasive breast cancer, and may not be a negative prognostic factor in human breast cancer.

Keywords: Breast cancer; Targeted therapies.

Abstract

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