Prohibitin 2 mRNA downregulation in breast cancer tumor tissues

Introduction: Breast cancer is the most important cause of cancer mortality among women, therefore the study of its causative or aggravating factors seems necessary. In this study, the mRNA levels of the PHB2 gene were evaluated in tumor and adjacent non-tumor tissues of 50 women diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast. Methods: RNX-Plus solution was used to isolate total RNA from tumor and adjacent non-tumor tissues of breast cancer patients. Thereafter, total RNA was converted to cDNA using PrimeScriptTM RT reagent kit. The mRNA levels of PHB2 were quantified by qRT-PCR and data were analyzed with a paired-samples t test. Furthermore, ROC curve analysis was performed to evaluate the diagnostic capacity of PHB2 expression in breast cancer tumor tissues. Results: A significantly lower level of PHB2 mRNA was observed in tumor tissues of breast cancer patients compared with adjacent non-tumor tissues (P<0.0001). PHB2 mRNA levels showed an approximately 2.5-fold reduction in tumor tissues compared with normal tissues (P = 0.001). Roc cure analysis showed that PHB2 mRNA level can discriminate tumors from non-tumor tissues with 91.3% specificity and 64.3% sensitivity (AUC=0.712, P<0.001). Conclusion: Downregulation of PHB2 in breast cancer patients shows that its mRNA levels can possibly discriminate tumors from non-tumor tissues.