Differential expression of the oxytocin receptor, OXTR, in cancers of the breast.
Breast cancer affects women at relatively high frequency (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 the oxytocin receptor, OXTR, when comparing primary tumors of the breast to the tissue of origin, the normal breast. OXTR expression in primary tumors of the breast was significantly lower than in normal breast tissue, and relapse-free survival in breast cancer patients was significantly longer in patients with high tumor expression of OXTR than in patients with low tumor expression of OXTR. OXTR may be of relevance to initiation, maintenance or progression of cancers of the female breast.