Han Tao, Zhaozhe Liu, Xiaodong Xie

Department of Oncology, General Hospital of ShenyangMilitary Region, Shenyang

Objective:Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is aheterogeneous subtype of breast cancer that is prone to recurrence andmetastasis with worse prognosis. Epirubicin-based chemotherapy is of great importancefor patients with TNBC, but resistance to epirubicin severely limits the applicationof this drug and this has emerged as a major problem in the treatment of TNBC.The ubiquitin protein D (UBD) molecule has often been considered a tumoroncogene, and has been shown to promote the recurrence and metastasis ofmalignant tumor cells. Since the role of UBD in epirubicin resistance and its prognosticvalue in TNBC have not been reported, the study reported here was designed toidentify the epirubicin-resistance molecule and clarify the related biomarkerfor TNBC prognosis. Method: UBD plasmid was transfected into MDA-MB-231cells, and the cells were exposed to epirubicin to observe the ability of UBDin epirubicin resistance. UBD expression was also detected in 78 breast cancertissues by immunohistochemistry. Statistical methods were used to study therelationship between UBD expression and epirubicin resistance in TNBCtreatment. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis was used to determine the correlationbetween UBD expression and TNBC patients' prognostic parameters. Result: UBDexpression was found increased in breast cancer tissues. Forced UBD expressionwas found to have a relationship with TNBC epirubicin resistance in vitro. Highexpression of UBD was found in TNBC, compared with in non-TNBC, and this playeda positive role in epirubicin resistance and indicated the poor prognosis ofTNBC treatment. Conclusion: UBD may play an important role in epirubicinresistance in TNBC. UBD has the potential to be a novel biomarker in TNBCchemoresistance and may be a promising therapeutic target for TNBC patients.

Key Words: prognosis  chemoresistance  biomarker