PKR-like ER kinase-phosphorylated eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2α (PERK-p-eIF2α) pathway is one of the three main signal pathways in ER stress, however, its mechanism in regulating breast cancer (BC) relapse or metastasis was still not completely understood.
Taken together these results indicate that increased PKR expression in primary breast cancer tissues may serve as a biomarker for response to doxorubicin-containing chemotherapy and that future therapeutic approaches to promote PKR expression/activation and eIF2α phosphorylation may be beneficial for the treatment of breast cancer.
Furthermore, in cDNAs prepared from a primary human breast cancer cohort, we demonstrated a significant correlation (Spearman rank correlation coefficient, r = 0.50, p < 0.0001, n = 63) between PKR- and MIF-mRNA expression.