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Calpain system protein expression in basal-like and
triple-negative invasive breast cancer

Storr, Sarah J.; Lee, K.W.; Woolston, Caroline M.; Safuan, Sabreena; Green, A.R.; Macmillan, R.D.; Benhasouna, A.; Parr, T.; Ellis, I.O.; Martin, Stewart G.

Calpain system protein expression in basal-like and 
triple-negative invasive breast cancer Thumbnail


Authors

Profile image of SARAH STORR

SARAH STORR sarah.storr@nottingham.ac.uk
Assistant Professor

K.W. Lee

Caroline M. Woolston

Sabreena Safuan

A.R. Green

R.D. Macmillan

A. Benhasouna

T. Parr

I.O. Ellis

Stewart G. Martin



Abstract

Background: Basal-like and triple-negative breast tumours encompass an important clinical subgroup and
biomarkers that can prognostically stratify these patients are required.
Materials and methods: We investigated two breast cancer tissue microarrays for the expression of calpain-1,
calpain-2 and calpastatin using immunohistochemistry. The first microarray was comprised of invasive tumours from
1371 unselected patients, and the verification microarray was comprised of invasive tumours from 387 oestrogen
receptor (ER)-negative patients.
Results: The calpain system contains a number of proteases and an endogenous inhibitor, calpastatin. Calpain activity
is implicated in important cellular processes including cytoskeletal remodelling, apoptosis and survival. Our results show
that the expression of calpastatin and calpain-1 are significantly associated with various clinicopathological criteria
including tumour grade and ER expression. High expression of calpain-2 in basal-like or triple-negative disease was
associated with adverse breast cancer-specific survival (P = 0.003 and <0.001, respectively) and was verified in an
independent cohort of patients. Interestingly, those patients with basal-like or triple-negative disease with a low level of
calpain-2 expression had similar breast cancer-specific survival to non-basal- or receptor- (oestrogen, progesterone or
human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)) positive disease.
Conclusions: Expression of the large catalytic subunit of m-calpain (calpain-2) is significantly associated with clinical
outcome of patients with triple-negative and basal-like disease.

Citation

triple-negative invasive breast cancer. Annals of Oncology, 23(9), https://doi.org/10.1093/annonc/mds176

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Sep 9, 2012
Deposit Date Apr 1, 2014
Publicly Available Date Apr 1, 2014
Journal Annals of Oncology
Print ISSN 0923-7534
Electronic ISSN 1569-8041
Publisher Oxford University Press
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 23
Issue 9
DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/annonc/mds176
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/711522
Publisher URL http://annonc.oxfordjournals.org/content/23/9/2289.full

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