Expression of KLF5 is a prognostic factor for disease-free survival and overall survival in patients with breast cancer.
OBJECTIVE
Kruppel-like factor (KLF5) is a cell growth mediator in various epithelial cells. Higher KLF5 increases cell growth rate and leads to transformed phenotypes. Because tumor cell proliferation is tightly associated with tumor progression, and consequently, with survival of cancer patients, we wanted to examine the prognostic value of KLF5 gene expression for patients with breast cancer.


METHODS
The gene expression levels of KLF5, ER, PR, HER2, and MKI67 were quantified in the tumor tissues of 90 patients with breast cancer and correlated with disease-free survival and overall survival of the patients. The correlations of gene expression between KLF5 and ER, PR, HER2, and MKI67 were analyzed. In addition, KLF5 expression was also compared with clinical data and age of patients.


RESULTS
Statistically significant correlations were found between gene expression of KLF5 and both disease-free survival (univariate analysis) and overall survival (univariate and multivariate analysis). Patients with higher KLF5 expression had shorter disease-free survival and overall survival time, whereas patients with lower KLF5 expression had better survival. Moreover, KLF5 was also found to be positively correlated with HER2 and MKI67, and negatively correlated with age of the patients at diagnosis.


CONCLUSIONS
The gene expression of KLF5 is directly correlated with cell proliferation in vivo and is a prognostic factor for patients with breast cancer. Patients with higher KLF5 expression have shorter disease-free survival and overall survival than patients with lower KLF5 expression. In addition, KLF5 has higher expression in patients ages </=50 years old than in patients >50 years old.
Tong
Dan
D
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Clinical Institute of Pathology, Section of Clinical Biometrics, Core Unit of Medical Statistics and Informatics, Medical University of Vienna, Austria. dan.cassire-castillo@meduniwien.ac.at
Czerwenka
Klaus
K
Heinze
Georg
G
Ryffel
Martin
M
Schuster
Eva
E
Witt
Armin
A
Leodolter
Sepp
S
Zeillinger
Robert
R
D000367:Age Factors; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D019394:Ki-67 Antigen / Q000235:genetics; D051741:Kruppel-Like Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics*; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011379:Prognosis; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000235:genetics; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen / Q000235:genetics; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone / Q000235:genetics; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D016019:Survival Analysis
D019394:Ki-67 Antigen; D051741:Kruppel-Like Transcription Factors; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone; C492214:KLF5 protein, human