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Frequent loss of heterozygosity at the interferon regulatory factor-1 gene locus in breast cancer

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Abstract

The interferon regulatory factor-1 (IRF1) gene, localized on chromosome 5q31.1, is mutated or rearranged in several cancers including some hematopoietic and gastric cancers. However, whether loss of IRF1 occurs in sporadic breast cancer is unknown. Loss of 5q12-31 is reported in 11% of sporadic breast cancers, and high-resolution array-CGH studies have shown loss at 5q31.1 in 50% of breast cancers with a mutated BRCA1 gene. Functionally, overexpression of IRF1 reduces, and a dominant negative IRF1 construct increases, tumorigenesis of human breast cancer xenografts. Taken together, these observations indicate that the IRF1 gene may play a potentially important role as a breast cancer tumor suppressor gene. In this study, we investigated allelic loss of the IRF1 gene in breast tumor specimens from 52 women with invasive breast cancer using an IRF1 intragenic dinucleotide polymorphic marker. Thirty-seven cases were informative. LOH at the IRF1 locus was detected in 32% of these informative cases (12/37). There was a significant association between IRF1 loss and both older age (P = 0.0167) and earlier stage (Stages 1 and 2) (P = 0.0165). To assess the association of IRF1 mRNA expression with clinical outcomes in breast cancer, we studied data from two published gene expression microarray datasets. In breast cancer patients, low IRF1 mRNA expression is strongly correlated with both risk of recurrence (OR = 3.00; P = 0.003; n = 273 cases) and risk of death (OR = 4.18; P = 0.004; n = 191 cases). Our findings strongly imply a tumor suppressor role for the IRF1 gene in breast cancer.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported in part by a pilot grant from the Jess and Mildred Fisher Center for Familial Cancer Research at Georgetown University, BC030280 from the DOD, and KG091175 from the Komen Foundation. We thank the Histopathology and Tissue Shared Resource (HTSR) of the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, which is partially supported by National Institutes of Health Grant 1P30-CA-51008 (Cancer Center Support Grant, CCSG), for providing the histopathology support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Oncology, Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, DC, 20057, USA

    Luciane R. Cavalli, Rebecca B. Riggins, Robert Clarke & Bassem R. Haddad

  2. Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, DC, 20057, USA

    Antai Wang

  3. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, DC, 20057, USA

    Bassem R. Haddad

  4. Department of Oncology, Georgetown University School of Medicine, Room W405A Research Building, 3970 Reservoir Rd, NW, Washington, DC, 20007, USA

    Robert Clarke

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  1. Luciane R. Cavalli
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Correspondence to Robert Clarke.

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Cavalli, L.R., Riggins, R.B., Wang, A. et al. Frequent loss of heterozygosity at the interferon regulatory factor-1 gene locus in breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res Treat 121, 227–231 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-009-0509-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-009-0509-8

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