The Evaluation of Cancer Testis Gene PIWIL2 Expression Levels as a New Prognostic Biomarker for Breast Cancer

Introduction: Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer and foremost reason of death resulting from malignancy among the women worldwide. Recently, it has been reported that a group of genes named cancer testis genes (CTg) are expressed in adult immune privileged sites and some embryonic tissues. Likewise, it has been demonstrated that CTgs are expressed aberrantly in various tumors and play important role in both development and progression of cancers. Accordingly, cancer testis gene PIWIL2, was examined as a suitable prognostic biomarker for breast cancer. Materials and Methods: To investigate the expression levels of PIWIL2 in breast cancer, 72cancerous and normal-adjacent specimens from 44 patients who had not received chemotherapy before undergoing surgery were selected. The statistical relationships between the PIWIL2 expression status and clinicopathological parameters were determined, ultimately. Results: It was shown that the expression rates of PIWIL2 in cancerous breast tissues were related to patients’ age, tumor stage, tumor size, tumor grade, and lymph node involvement (P < 0.05). Conclusions The PIWIL2 gene could be considered as an proper prognostic biomarker in breast cancer.

Keywords:

Breast cancer , Cancer testis genes , PIWIL2