Comprehensive Analysis of the Expression and Prognosis for RAD51 Family in Human Breast Cancer

Yaqin Shi; Meng Shen; Mengdan Xu; Min Tao; Kai Chen; Qingqing Zhu

doi:10.2147/IJGM.S350971

Comprehensive Analysis of the Expression and Prognosis for RAD51 Family in Human Breast Cancer

Int J Gen Med. 2022 May 13:15:4925-4936. doi: 10.2147/IJGM.S350971. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Yaqin Shi^#¹, Meng Shen^#¹, Mengdan Xu¹, Min Tao¹, Kai Chen¹, Qingqing Zhu²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, People's Republic of China.
² Department of Respiratory Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, 215006, People's Republic of China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Purpose: The RAD51 family of genes, including RAD51 and the five RAD51-like paralogs (RAD51B, RAD51C, RAD51D, XRCC2, and XRCC3), are known to be crucially associated with DNA damage repair pathway. Increasing evidence indicated that RAD51 family members were implicated in breast cancer tumorigenesis. However, their biological roles and prognostic values in breast cancer have yet to be clarified.

Methods: In this study, by using the Oncomine and GEPIA databases, we explored the transcriptional levels of RAD51 family members in breast cancer. Besides, the associations between RAD51 family expression and clinical features were evaluated by using the UALCAN database and Kaplan-Meier (KM) Plotter. We also analyzed the mutations of the RAD51 family and differentially altered genes from the cBioPortal database.

Results: We found that RAD51 mRNA was significantly elevated in breast cancer samples than in normal tissues, while XRCC2 mRNA was downregulated. Besides, a remarkable correlation was detected between the expression of RAD51/RAD51B/XRCC2 genes and the breast cancer stage. Survival analysis utilizing the KM Plotter indicated that high RAD51 and XRCC3 mRNA was associated with a poor prognosis. Conversely, RFS data suggested that high levels of RAD51B/RAD51C/RAD51D/XRCC2 were associated with a favorable prognosis. Moreover, a high genetic variation rate of RAD51C (7%) was detected in breast cancer patients.

Conclusion: Conclusively, we implied that RAD51 and XRCC3 might be potential targets for precision therapy in breast cancer and the RAD51B/RAD51C/RAD51D/XRCC2 genes have significant values for breast cancer prognosis.

Keywords: RAD51; breast; cancer; expression; gene; prognosis.

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 81802295) and the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province(Grant No. BK20180198 and BK20210096).