Breast cancer affects women at relatively high frequency (1). We mined published microarray datasets (2, 3) to determine in an unbiased fashion and at the systems level genes most differentially expressed in the primary tumors of patients with breast cancer. We report here significant differential expression of the gene encoding sushi, von Willebrand factor type A, EGF and pentraxin domain-containing 1, SVEP1, when comparing primary tumors of the breast to the tissue of origin, the normal breast. SVEP1 was also differentially expressed in the brain metastases of patients with metastatic breast cancer. SVEP1 mRNA was present at significantly lower quantities in tumors of the breast as compared to normal breast tissue. Analysis of human survival data revealed that expression of SVEP1 in primary tumors of the breast was correlated with distant metastasis-free survival in patients with normal-like subtype cancer, demonstrating a relationship between primary tumor expression of a differentially expressed gene and patient survival outcomes influenced by PAM50 molecular subtype. SVEP1 may be of relevance to initiation, maintenance or progression of cancers of the female breast.
The protein fold of the von Willebrand factor type A domain is predicted to be similar to the open twisted β-sheet flanked by α-helices found in human ras-p21
