A polymorphic variant allele (T-allele) in the 3'-UTR of prohibitin (C-to-T at nucleotide 729) was reported to be associated with an increased risk of breast cancer.
We detected that PHB could inhibit breast cancer cell proliferation, change cell cycle distribution and promote cell apoptosis in the ER-positive breast cancer cells.
Important mechanisms for PHB have been unveiled in several cancers, especially with regard to the androgen independent state of prostate cancer (PC) and oestrogen dependent breast cancer.
PHB amplification was most common in the ERBB2+ breast cancer subtype, although high expression was most prevalent in basal-like and luminal B cancers.
In summary, Prohibitin may be associated with breast cancer and its down expression can serve as a potential biomarker for the effective assessment of the disease.
A statistically significant correlation was obtained which suggested that prohibitin may be associated with tumor development and/or progression of at least some proportion of breast cancers.
In the sub-group analysis, prohibitin 3' untranslated region C > T gene polymorphism and cancer risk appeared associated with the risk of breast cancer, but not ovarian cancer.
Additionally, mitochondrial protein prohibitin has shown to be differentially distributed in mitochondria and in nucleus for normal breast cells and breast cancer cell lines, respectively.
The PHB1630 C/T single nucleotide polymorphism was associated with breast cancers with clinical features typical for BRCA1-positive tumours and is deserving of further study.
Collectively, these findings suggest that the prohibitin/Brg1/Brm node is a major cellular target for estrogen antagonists, and thereby also implicate prohibitin/Brg1/Brm as potentially important targets for breast cancer therapy.
Two allelic forms (C versus T) of the prohibitin 3'UTR exist, and carriers of the less common variant (Tallele) with a family history of breast cancer exhibited an increased risk of breast cancer.
These data suggest that prohibitin genotyping has value in assessing risk of breast cancer in women aged 50 years or younger with at least one first-degree relative with the disease.
For many others, such as MYC, CCND1, EMS1, EGF, RB1, NME, DCC and prohibitin, the evidence is still largely circumstantial, or obtained only by in vitro studies on breast cancer cell lines.