This study explored the expression, biological function and prognostic role of SOX2 in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). Quantitative real-time PCR and immunohistochemistry were used to detect the expression of SOX2 in TNBC cell lines and clinical tissues. MTT assay, Transwell assay, flow cytometry and xenograft mouse model were used to assess the biological functions of SOX2. It was found that SOX2 was up-regulated in both TNBC cell lines and clinical tissues. High expression of SOX2 was associated with shorter overall survival and disease free survival. Moreover, inhibition of SOX2 suppressed cell proliferation and invasion, induced cell apoptosis in vitro, and suppressed tumorigenesis and metastasis in vivo. In addition, analysis of TNM stage and lymph nodes infiltration among the 237 TNBC patients by paired χ² test showed that SOX2 was inversely correlated with tumor status, our findings provided evidence that SOX2 acts as a tumor promoter in TNBC and inhibition of SOX2 could be a potential therapeutic strategy for TNBC.

Different breast cancer subtypes show distinct tropisms for sites of metastasis. Notably, the lung is the most common site for the first distant recurrence in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). The identification of novel biomarkers for lung metastasis is of great importance to improving the outcome of TNBC. In this study, we sought to identify a microRNA (miRNA)-based biomarker and therapeutic target for lung metastasis of TNBC. A total of 669 patients without de novo stage IV TNBC were recruited for this study. miRNA profiling was conducted in the discovery cohort. Diagnostic accuracy and prognostic values of candidate miRNAs were evaluated in the training and validation cohorts, respectively. The biological functions of candidate miRNAs, as well as potential targets, were further evaluated through bioinformatic analysis as well as by performing in vitro and in vivo assays. In the discovery set, we found that miR-629-3p was specifically upregulated in both metastatic foci (fold change 144.16, P < 0.0001) and primary tumors (fold change 74.37, P = 0.004) in patients with lung metastases. In the training set, the ROC curve showed that miR-629-3p yielded high diagnostic accuracy in discriminating patients with lung metastasis from patients without recurrence (AUC 0.865, 95% CI 0.800–0.930, P < 0.0001). Although miR-629-3p predicted poor overall survival and disease-free survival in the validation set, it failed to show significance after multivariate analysis. Notably, logistic regression analyses confirmed that miR-629-3p was an independent risk factor for lung metastasis (OR 4.1, 95% CI 2.5–6.6, P < 0.001). Inhibition of miR-629-3p drastically attenuated the viability and migration of TNBC cells, and it markedly suppressed lung metastasis in vivo. Furthermore, we identified the leukemia inhibitory factor receptor (LIFR), a well-known metastatic suppressive gene, to be a direct target of miR-629-3p. miR-629-3p may serve as a novel biomarker and potential therapeutic target for lung metastases of TNBC mediated via LIFR.

More sensitive and effective diagnostic markers for the detection of breast cancer are urgently needed. The microRNA-183/182/96 cluster has been reported to be involved in tumorigenesis and progression in a variety of cancers, and it is a promising cancer prognostic biomarker. The goal of this study was to determine the expression levels of the miR-183/182/96 cluster in breast cancer tissues and evaluate its prognostic role in breast cancer. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis (qRT-PCR) was used to detect the expression levels of the miR-183/182/96 cluster in 41 breast cancer tissues and adjacent normal tissues (control tissues) and also in different mammary cell lines. In situ hybridization (ISH) of the miR-183/182/96 cluster on 131 tissue microarrays (TMAs) was used to statistically analyze its prognostic role. The miR-183/182/96 cluster levels were significantly higher in breast cancer tissues than in control tissues. The miR-183/182/96 cluster was also upregulated in human breast cancer cell lines. An increased miR-183/182/96 cluster level was correlated with local relapse, distant metastasis and poor clinical outcomes. Our findings improve our understanding of the expression level of the miR-183/182/96 cluster in breast cancer and clarify the role of the miR-183/182/96 cluster as a novel prognostic biomarker for breast cancer.

TRNA‐derived fragments (tRFs), non‐coding RNAs that regulate protein expression after transcription, have recently been identified as potential biomarkers. We identified differentially expressed tRFs in gastric cancer (GC) and the biological properties of tRFs in predicting the malignancy status of GCs as possible biomarkers. Until 15 February 2022, two independent reviewers did a thorough search in electronic databases of Scopus, EMBASE and PubMed. The QUADAS scale was used for quality assessment of the included studies. Ten articles investigating the clinical significance of tRFs, including 928 patients, were analysed. In 10 GC studies, seven tRFs were considerably upregulated and five tRFs were significantly downregulated when compared to controls. Risk of bias was rated low for index test, and flow as well as timing domains in relation to the review question. The applicability of the index test, flow and timing and patient selection for 10 studies was deemed low. In this study, we review the advances in the study of tRFs in GC and describe their functions in gene expression regulation, such as suppression of translation, cell differentiation, proliferation and the related signal transduction pathways associated with them. Our findings may offer researchers new ideas for cancer treatment as well as potential biomarkers for further research in GC.

Background: In the post‐Z0011 trial era, the need to perform surgical axillary staging for early‐stage breast cancer patients, who are treated with breast‐conserving therapy (BCT), is being questioned. We conducted a retrospective cohort study using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database to evaluate the safety of waiving surgical axillary staging in patients with T1 breast cancer treated with BCT. Methods: A total of 166,615 eligible patients diagnosed between 2000 and 2012 were divided into staging (sentinel lymph node biopsy or axillary lymph node dissection) and non‐staging (no lymph node examined or only needle aspiration biopsy of lymph nodes) groups. Propensity score matching (PSM) was performed to balance disparities between the two groups. Multivariate analysis with the Cox proportional hazards model was used to assess factors related to breast cancer‐specific survival (BCSS). Results: Although the tumor size at time of presentation was decreasing over years, the rate of surgical axillary staging increased from 93.3% to 96.9%. The 5‐year BCSS rates of the whole cohort (before PSM) and matched cohort (after PSM) were 98.0% and 97.5%. Within the matched cohort, the BCSS was significantly longer in the staging group than in the non‐staging group ( P < 0.001). However, surgical axillary staging did not benefit patients who were 50–79 years old, had tumor size < 1 cm, histological grade I disease, or favorable histological types (tubular/mucinous/papillary) in stratified analyses ( P > 0.05). Race, marital status, hormone receptors, and chemotherapy were not associated with the favorable impact of surgical axillary staging on BCSS ( P > 0.05). Conclusion: Although surgical axillary staging remains important for T1 breast cancer patients treated with BCT, it might be unnecessary for patients with old age, small tumor, grade I disease, or favorable histological types.

Resistance to trastuzumab remains a major obstacle in HER2-overexpressing breast cancer treatment. miR-200c is important for many functions in cancer stem cells (CSCs), including tumor recurrence, metastasis and resistance. We hypothesized that miR-200c contributes to trastuzumab resistance and stemness maintenance in HER2-overexpressing breast cancer. In this study, we used HER2-positive SKBR3, HER2-negative MCF-7, and their CD44 ⁺ CD24 ^- phenotype mammospheres SKBR3-S and MCF-7-S to verify. Our results demonstrated that miR-200c was weakly expressed in breast cancer cell lines and cell line stem cells. Overexpression of miR-200c resulted in a significant reduction in the number of tumor spheres formed and the population of CD44 ⁺ CD24 ^- phenotype mammospheres in SKBR3-S. Combining miR-200c with trastuzumab can significantly reduce proliferation and increase apoptosis of SKBR3 and SKBR3-S. Overexpression of miR-200c also eliminated its downstream target genes. These genes were highly expressed and positively related in breast cancer patients. Overexpression of miR-200c also improved the malignant progression of SKBR3-S and SKBR3 in vivo. miR-200c plays an important role in the maintenance of the CSC-like phenotype and increases drug sensitivity to trastuzumab in HER2+ cells and stem cells. Summary statement: miRNAs are critical in stemness maintenance and drug resistance. These data link maintenance of the stemness-related phenotype and the sensitivity of HER2+ breast cancer to miR-200c in response to trastuzumab.