The expression of SDC2 was highly associated with four parameters, i.e., stage (P < 0.01), vascular invasion (P = 0.0045), lymph node metastasis (P=0.0018), and distant metastasis (P = 0.0019).
The involvement of HSPGs in tumor cell signaling, inflammation, angiogenesis and metastasis indicates that agents able to inhibit aberrant HSPG functions can potentially act as multitarget drugs affecting both tumor cell growth and the supportive boost provided by the microenvironment.
A non-cleavable mutant of syndecan-2 in which the Asn148-Leu149 residues were replaced with Asn148-Ile149, had decreased shedding, less cancer-associated activities of syndecan-2 in vitro, and less syndecan-2-mediated metastasis of mouse melanoma cells in vivo, suggesting the importance of shedding on syndecan-2-mediated pro-tumorigenic functions.
RKIP, LOX and SDC2 are coordinately regulated and collectively encompass a prognostic signature for metastasis-free survival in ER-negative breast cancer patients.