FCRLA is a differentially expressed gene in lymph node metastatic human breast cancer.
Metastasis to the brain is a clinical problem in patients with breast cancer (1-3). Between the breast and the brain reside the secondary lymphoid organ, the lymph nodes. We mined published microarray data (4, 5) to compare primary and metastatic tumor transcriptomes for the discovery of genes associated with lymph node metastasis in humans with metastatic breast cancer. We found that Fc receptor-like A, encoded by FCRLA, was among the genes whose expression was most different in the lymph node metastases of patients with metastatic breast cancer as compared to primary tumors of the breast. FCRLA mRNA was present at increased quantities in lymph node metastatic tissues as compared to primary tumors of the breast. Expression of FCRLA in primary tumors was significantly correlated with patient overall survival in lymph node negative patients. Modulation of FCRLA expression may be relevant to the biology by which tumor cells metastasize from the breast to the lymph node in humans with metastatic breast cancer.