Poster Presentation 14th International Biennial Conference on Metastasis Research 2012

Sub1 is a marker of aggressive breast cancer (#84)

Wei Shi 1 , Fares Al-Ejeh 1 , Jessie Jeffery 1 , Peiyi Yap 1 , Mariska Miranda 1 , Kum Kum Khanna 1
  1. Signal Transduction Laboratory, Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Herston, QLD, Australia

RNA polymerase II cofactor PC4 was found highly expressed in more invasive breast cancer cell lines and up-regulated during clinical progression of carcinoma in situ to invasive and metastatic carcinomas. Here we investigate the functional role of PC4 in breast cancer cell invasion and breast cancer progression. PC4 protein levels were elevated in invasive breast carcinoma compared with normal breast epithelia. Analysis of microarray datasets for breast cancer survival cohorts showed that higher SUB1 gene expression (mRNA) was associated with higher relapses in basal tumours with emphasis on brain relapses. Consistently, we have observed up-regulated expression of PC4 in metastatic samples compared to primary tumours in matched primary and brain metastasis breast cancer pairs. Depletion of PC4 in invasive breast cancer cell lines abolished cell invasion. Collectively, these data identify PC4 as a potentially new marker in breast cancer progression and metastasis and provide a rationale for novel therapeutic target.


  1. Financial Support: This work was supported by the 2011 Rio Tinto Ride to Conquer Cancer funding [to W.S.]; National Health & Medical Research Council Program Grant [442903 to S.R.L and KK.K.] and Australian Research Council Grant [DP0880372 to KK.K.].