Differential expression of NDC80, kinetochore complex component 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 NDC80, kinetochore complex component, NDC80, when comparing the tumor cells of patients with triple negative breast cancer to normal mammary ductal cells (2). NDC80 was also differentially expressed in bulk tumor in human breast cancer (3). NDC80 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 NDC80 in primary tumors of the breast was correlated with overall survival in patients with basal-like and luminal A subtype cancer, while within triple negative breast cancer, primary tumor expression of NDC80 was correlated with overall survival in patients with basal-like 1 subtype disease. NDC80 may be of relevance to initiation, maintenance or progression of triple negative breast cancers.