Differential expression of transcription factor Dp family member 3 in triple negative breast cancer.
Women diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer are predicted to 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 transcription factor Dp family member 3, TFDP3, when comparing the tumor cells of patients with triple negative breast cancer to normal mammary ductal cells (2). TFDP3 was also differentially expressed in the brain metastases of patients with brain metastatic breast cancer (3). TFDP3 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 TFDP3 in primary tumors of the breast was correlated with distant metastasis-free survival in patients with basal-like and luminal B type cancer, while within triple negative breast cancer, primary tumor expression of TFDP3 was correlated with overall survival in patients with basal-like 1 subtype disease. TFDP3 may be of relevance to initiation, maintenance or progression of triple negative breast cancers.