World Journal of Surgical Oncology (Sep 2022)

Overexpression of PBK/TOPK relates to poor prognosis of patients with breast cancer: a retrospective analysis

  • Liang Qiao,
  • Jinling Ba,
  • Jiping Xie,
  • Ruiping Zhu,
  • Yi Wan,
  • Min Zhang,
  • Zeyu Jin,
  • Zicheng Guo,
  • Jiaxuan Yu,
  • Sijing Chen,
  • Yongqiang Yao

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12957-022-02769-x
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 20, no. 1
pp. 1 – 11

Abstract

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Abstract Background PDZ-binding kinase/T-lymphokine-activated killer cell-derived protein kinase (PBK/TOPK) is a potential prognostic indicator for patients with breast cancer. The objective of the present study was to explore the relationship between PBK/TOPK expression and clinicopathological indicators as well as the survival of patients with breast cancer. Methods Immunohistochemical staining was used to detect the expression of PBK/TOPK in 202 cases of breast cancer tissues. The relationship between PBK/TOPK and clinicopathological parameters was evaluated using Spearman’s rank-order correlation. The difference in PBK/TOPK expression among different molecular types was analyzed with the chi-square test. Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to create a survival curve and the log rank test was used to analyze the overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS). Prognostic correlation was assessed using univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses. Results Among 202 breast cancer samples, PBK/TOPK was expressed (“+” and “++”) in 182 samples (90.1%). In addition, the histological grade, TNM stages, lymph node metastasis, estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2), and Ki-67 were positively associated with PBK/TOPK expression. With regard to the molecular type, the expression of PBK/TOPK is different. The expression level of PBK/TOPK was negatively correlated with both the OS and DFS of breast cancer patients. The difference in the above results is meaningful (P < 0.05). Conclusions PBK/TOPK is overexpressed in breast cancer, and the expression is closely related to the clinicopathological characteristics of the disease. Breast cancer patients with high expression of PBK/TOPK have a poor prognosis. Therefore, healthcare providers can optimize breast cancer management using this indicator.

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