Aberrant DNMT3B7 Expression Correlates to Age, Race, and Hormone Receptor Status in Breast Cancer Patients

Abstract

Invasive breast cancer caused almost 40,000 deaths last year alone. Deciphering a way to better understand aggressive phenotypes of breast cancer could potentially provide a novel approach to increase the efficacy of breast cancer treatments. The aberrant gene DNA methyltransferase 3B7, DNMT3B7, has been observed in virtually all cancer types and has been shown to affect multiple facets of breast cancer progression including changes in cell adhesion, cellular proliferation, and anchorage-independent growth. A bioinformatics approach was taken to attempt to determine which clinical parameters are potentially altered by DNMT3B7 expression in breast cancer patients. Clinical parameters including age at initial diagnosis, menopausal status, race, and the status of three hormone receptors — estrogen, progesterone, and human epidermal growth factor 2 (ER, PR, HER2, respectively) — were collected from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and analyzed using T-tests and ANOVA. Our results show increased expression of the aberrant gene, DNMT3B7, is correlated with age at initial diagnosis, race, and hormone receptor status (ER negative, PR negative, and HER2 positive) in breast cancer patients, but not with menopausal status. Taken together, these data indicate that DNMT3B7 expression may be an important marker in tumor progression. KEYWORDS: DNMT3B7, DNA Methylation; Bioinformatics; Breast Cancer; Tumor Progression; Estrogen Receptor; Progesterone Receptor: Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2