Differential expression of kinesin family member 20A in triple negative breast cancer.
Women diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer can benefit neither from endocrine therapy nor from HER2-targeted therapies (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 kinesin family member 20A, KIF20A, when comparing the tumor cells of patients with triple negative breast cancer to normal mammary ductal cells (2). KIF20A was also differentially expressed in bulk tumor in human breast cancer (3). KIF20A mRNA was present at significantly increased quantities in TNBC tumor cells relative to normal mammary ductal cells. Analysis of human survival data revealed that expression of KIF20A in primary tumors of the breast was correlated with distant metastasis-free survival in patients with luminal B type cancer in patients with HER2+ cancer, and in patients with normal-like cancer, while within triple negative breast cancer, primary tumor expression of KIF20A was correlated with distant metastasis-free survival in patients with basal-like 2 subtype disease. KIF20A may be of relevance to initiation, maintenance or progression of triple negative breast cancers.