title: NPY1R is a novel peripheral blood marker predictive of metastasis and prognosis in breast cancer patients.
abstract: The aim of the current study was to evaluate a novel tumor marker, neuropeptide Y receptor Y1 (NPY1R), for the detection of circulating cancer cells and to investigate its clinical significance in breast cancer patients. The Digital Gene Expression Displayer tool of the Cancer Genome Anatomy Project was used to identify the marker gene NPY1R, which is able to detect circulating cancer cells. Nested quantitative polymerase chain reaction was performed to correlate the NPY1R expression levels with the clinicopathological features of 142 breast cancer patients. A follow-up study of 131 of the breast cancer patients was conducted for 38 months. Compared with the 60 normal control individuals, NPY1R was highly expressed in the cancer patients (P<0.01). These high levels of NPY1R expression were positively correlated with the clinical stage and lymph node metastasis status of the disease, as well as with the status of the estrogen and progesterone receptors (P<0.05). Breast cancer patients with circulating cancer cells that expressed NPY1R exhibited shorter tumor-specific survival when compared with those with no NPY1R expression (P<0.01). Additionally, the mortality rate was associated with HER2 expression in the NPY1R positive and negative groups. These results indicate that NPY1R may serve as a useful marker to predict breast cancer metastasis and to evaluate the prognosis of breast cancer patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, Basic Medical Institute, Chengde Medical College, Chengde, Hebei 067000, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Central Laboratory, Basic Medical Institute, Chengde Medical College, Chengde, Hebei 067000, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, Basic Medical Institute, Chengde Medical College, Chengde, Hebei 067000, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Luyang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Clinical Skills Center, Chengde Medical College, Chengde, Hebei 067000, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Chunhu
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, Basic Medical Institute, Chengde Medical College, Chengde, Hebei 067000, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Lijun
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, Basic Medical Institute, Chengde Medical College, Chengde, Hebei 067000, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Dawei
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, Basic Medical Institute, Chengde Medical College, Chengde, Hebei 067000, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Yaxian
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, Basic Medical Institute, Chengde Medical College, Chengde, Hebei 067000, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Jianping
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, Basic Medical Institute, Chengde Medical College, Chengde, Hebei 067000, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Hongru
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Song
keywords: breast cancer; circulating cancer cells; neuropeptide Y receptor Y1; tumor marker