title: The prognostic significance of protein tyrosine phosphatase 4A2 in breast cancer.
abstract: Although PTP4A3 has been shown to be a very important factor in promoting cancer progression, the role of its close family member PTP4A2 is still largely unknown. Recent reports have shown contradicting results on the role of PTP4A2 in breast cancer progression. Considering this, we aimed to investigate the prognostic value of PTP4A2 in five independent breast cancer data sets (minimum 198 patients per cohort, totaling 1,124 patients) in the Gene Expression Omnibus Database. We found that high expression of PTP4A2 was a favorable prognostic marker in all five independent breast cancer data sets, as well as in the combined cohort, with a hazard ratio of 0.68 (95% confidence interval =0.56-0.83; P<0.001). Low PTP4A2 expression was associated with estrogen receptor-negative tumors and tumors with higher histological grading; furthermore, low expression was inversely correlated with the expression of genes involved in proliferation, including MKI67 and the MCM gene family encoding the minichromosome maintenance proteins. These findings suggest that PTP4A2 may play a role in breast cancer progression by dysregulating cell proliferation. PTP4A2 expression was positively correlated with ESR1, the gene encoding estrogen receptor-alpha, and inversely correlated with EGFR expression, suggesting that PTP4A2 may be involved in these two important oncogenic pathways. Together, our results suggest that expression of PTP4A2 is a favorable prognostic marker in breast cancer.
authors.affiliation: College of Continuing Education, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Duanzheng
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, Fujian, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Libin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Macau, Avenida de Universidade, Taipa, Macau Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Henrique
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Neves
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Biopolis Drive, Proteos, Singapore.
authors.forename: Hiu-Fung
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Yuen
authors.affiliation: Center for Cancer Research and Cell Biology, Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast, UK.
authors.forename: Shu-Dong
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast, UK.
authors.forename: Cian M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: McCrudden
authors.affiliation: Center for Cancer Research and Cell Biology, Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast, UK.
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, Fujian, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Biopolis Drive, Proteos, Singapore.
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Macau, Avenida de Universidade, Taipa, Macau Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China ; Center for Cancer Research and Cell Biology, Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast, UK ; School of Pharmacy, Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast, UK.
authors.forename: Hang Fai
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Kwok
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, Fujian, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lin
keywords: PTP4A2; breast cancer; minichromosome maintenance proteins; overexpression; prognostic marker; survival