Strikingly, decrease in PDGFRα in breast cancer patients was associated with worse prognosis, suggesting that BM-derived CAFs may have deleterious effects on survival.
Specifically, PDGF-Rα and PDGF-Rβ expressions documented in breast cancer tissue specimens as well as breast cancer cell lines are correlated with tumor aggressiveness and metastasis.
These findings indicate that Smyd4, as a potential tumor suppressor, plays a critical role in breast carcinogenesis at least partly through inhibiting the expression of Pdgfr-alpha, and could be a novel target for improving treatment of breast cancer.
We used immunohistochemistry to detect PDGFR-alpha overexpression on a series of 181 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded invasive ductal breast carcinomas and in two breast cancer cell lines: MCF-7 and HS578T.