Clinicopathological and prognostic significance of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) in breast cancers.

BACKGROUND: Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) are signalling transduction molecules that have different functions and diverse behaviour in cancer. In breast cancer, MAPK is related to oestrogen receptor (ER) and HER2. METHODS: Protein expression of a large panel of MAPKs (JNK1/2, ERK, p38, C-JUN and ATF2 including phosphorylated forms) were assessed immunohistochemically in a large (n = 1400) and well-characterised breast cancer series prepared as tissue microarray. Moreover, reverse phase protein array was applied to quantify protein expression of MAPKs in six breast cancer cell lines with different phenotypes including HER2-transfected cells. RESULTS: MAPKs expression was associated with clinicopathological variables characteristic of good prognosis. These associations were most significant in the whole series and in the ER+ subgroup compared to other BC classes. Most of MAPKs showed a positive association with ER, BCL2 and better outcome and were negatively associated with the proliferation marker Ki67 and p53. Association of MAPK with HER2 was mainly seen in the ER- subgroup. Reverse phase protein array confirmed immunohistochemistry results and revealed differential expression of MAPK proteins in ER+ and ER- cell lines. CONCLUSIONS: MAPKs are associated with good prognosis and their expression is mainly related to ER. Studying a large panel rather than individual biomarkers may provide improved understanding of the pathway.

The mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) in breast cancer: the impact of oestrogen receptor and HER2 pathways.

The mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) is a downstream of the PI3K/Akt pathway which affects cancer development. mTORC1 has many downstream signalling effectors that can enhance different cellular responses. This study aims to investigate the expression of mTORC1 in breast cancer (BC) and correlate it with key clinicopathological and molecular features of BC especially to proteins related to oestrogen receptor (ER) and HER2 pathways in different BC classes. Moreover, mTORC1 expression was assessed in 6 BC cell lines including ER+ and ER- cell lines with and without HER2 transfection. Immunohistochemistry was used to assess the expression of phospho (p) mTORC1 in a large (n = 1300) annotated BC series prepared as tissue microarray. Reverse phase protein array (RPPA) was used to assess its expression in the different BC cell lines. The expression of p-mTORC1 was cytoplasmic with moderate/high expression noted in 44 % of BC. p-mTORC1 expression was associated with clinicopathological variables characteristic of good prognosis. Positive correlation with ER, ER-related proteins AKT, PI3K and luminal differentiation markers were observed in the whole series and in the ER+HER2- subgroup. Association with HER2 was mainly observed in the ER-negative class. RPPA indicated that p-mTORC1 expression was mainly related to ER expression and with better outcome in the Akt positive tumours. p-mTORC1 is associated with good prognostic features. Its expression is related to ER and ER related proteins in addition to AKT and PI3K. Its relation with HER2 expression is mainly seen in the absence of ER expression.