High expression of STAT3 within the tumour-associated stroma predicts poor outcome in breast cancer patients
Issued Date
2023-01-01
Resource Type
eISSN
20457634
Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85159664415
Pubmed ID
37199043
Journal Title
Cancer Medicine
Rights Holder(s)
SCOPUS
Bibliographic Citation
Cancer Medicine (2023)
Suggested Citation
Morrow E., Pennel K., Hatthakarnkul P., Leslie H., Mallon E., Andersen D., Jamieson N., McMillan D., Roseweir A., Edwards J. High expression of STAT3 within the tumour-associated stroma predicts poor outcome in breast cancer patients. Cancer Medicine (2023). doi:10.1002/cam4.6014 Retrieved from: https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/20.500.14594/82893
Title
High expression of STAT3 within the tumour-associated stroma predicts poor outcome in breast cancer patients
Other Contributor(s)
Abstract
Introduction: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients have the poorest clinical outcomes compared to other molecular subtypes of breast cancer. IL6/JAK/STAT3 signalling is upregulated in breast cancer; however, there is limited evidence for its role in TNBC. This study aimed to assess the expression of IL6/JAK/STAT3 in TNBC as a prognostic biomarker. Methods: Tissue microarrays consisting of breast cancer specimens from a retrospective cohort (n = 850) were stained for IL6R, JAK1, JAK2 and STAT3 via immunohistochemistry. Staining intensity was assessed by weighted histoscore and analysed for association with survival/clinical characteristics. In a subset of patients (n = 14) bulk transcriptional profiling was performed using TempO-Seq. Nanostring GeoMx® digital spatial profiling was utilised to establish the differential spatial gene expression in high STAT3 tumours. Results: In TNBC patients, high expression of stromal STAT3 was associated with reduced cancer-specific survival (HR = 2.202, 95% CI: 1.148–4.224, log rank p = 0.018). TNBC patients with high stromal STAT3 had reduced CD4+ T-cell infiltrates within the tumour (p = 0.001) and higher tumour budding (p = 0.003). Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) of bulk RNA sequencing showed high stromal STAT3 tumours were characterised by enrichment of IFNγ, upregulation of KRAS signalling and inflammatory signalling Hallmark pathways. GeoMx™ spatial profiling showed high stromal STAT3 samples. Pan cytokeratin (panCK)-negative regions were enriched for CD27 (p < 0.001), CD3 (p < 0.05) and CD8 (p < 0.001). In panCK-positive regions, high stromal STAT3 regions had higher expression of VEGFA (p < 0.05). Conclusion: High expression of IL6/JAK/STAT3 proteins was associated with poor prognosis and characterised by distinct underlying biology in TNBC.