ABI3BP is a differentially expressed gene in brain metastatic human breast cancer.
Metastasis to the brain is a clinical problem in patients with breast cancer (1-3). We mined published microarray data (4, 5) to compare primary and metastatic tumor transcriptomes for the discovery of genes associated with brain metastasis in humans with metastatic breast cancer. We found that ABI family member 3 binding protein, encoded by ABI3BP, was among the genes whose expression was most different in the brain metastases of patients with metastatic breast cancer as compared to primary tumors of the breast. ABI3BP mRNA was present at decreased quantities in brain metastatic tissues as compared to primary tumors of the breast. Importantly, expression of ABI3BP in primary tumors was correlated with patient overall survival. Modulation of ABI3BP expression may be relevant to the biology by which tumor cells metastasize from the breast to the brain in humans with metastatic breast cancer.