Low expression of G protein-coupled oestrogen receptor 1 (GPER) is associated with adverse survival of breast cancer patients

• Published in: Oncotarget 2018-05, Vol.9 (40), p.25946-25956
• Main Authors: Martin, Stewart G, Lebot, Marie N, Sukkarn, Bhudsaban, Ball, Graham, Green, Andrew R, Rakha, Emad A, Ellis, Ian O, Storr, Sarah J
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Research Paper
• ISSN: 1949-2553; 1949-2553
• DOI: 10.18632/oncotarget.25408

G protein-coupled oestrogen receptor 1 (GPER), also called G protein-coupled receptor 30 (GPR30), is attracting considerable attention for its potential role in breast cancer development and progression. Activation by oestrogen (17β-oestradiol; E2) initiates short term, non-genomic, signalling events both and . Published literature on the prognostic value of GPER protein expression in breast cancer indicates that further assessment is warranted. We show, using immunohistochemistry on a large cohort of primary invasive breast cancer patients (n=1245), that low protein expression of GPER is not only significantly associated with clinicopathological and molecular features of aggressive behaviour but also significantly associated with adverse survival of breast cancer patients. Furthermore, assessment of mRNA levels in the METABRIC cohort (n=1980) demonstrates that low mRNA expression is significantly associated with adverse survival of breast cancer patients. Using artificial neural networks, genes associated with mRNA expression were identified; these included notch-4 and jagged-1. These results support the prognostic value for determination of GPER expression in breast cancer.