Abstract 4909: Increased IR-A/IR-B ratio in non-small cell lung cancers associates with lower epithelial-mesenchymal transition signature and longer survival in squamous cell lung carcinoma

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Abstract To evaluate the insulin receptor isoform mRNA expression status in NSCLC patients RNA-seq data from 614 NSCLC [355 adenocarcinomas(LUAD) and 259 squamous cell carcinomas (LUSC)] and 92 normal lung specimens were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) to evaluate the mRNAexpression of insulin receptor isoform A (IR-A) and insulin receptor isoform B(IR-B). The differential expression status of the insulin receptor isoforms in NSCLC patients was confirmed using qRT-PCR assays with lung cancer cDNA arrays and primary tumor samples. The mRNA expression levels of IR-B were significantly lower in some NSCLC samples compared to normal lung specimens,including both LUAD and LUSC. Notably, no IR-B transcripts were detected - only the IR-A isoform was expressed in 11% of NSCLC patients. This decrease in IR-B expression contributed to an elevated IR-A/IR-B ratio, which was also associated with lower epithelial-mesenchymal transition gene signatures in NSCLC and longer patient survival under standard of care in LUSC. In addition to NSCLC, RNA-seq data from TCGA revealed a similar increase in IR-A/IR-B ratio in many other cancer types, with high prevalence in acute myeloid leukemia,glioblastoma multiforme, and brain lower grade glioma. Our results indicate a common reduction of the mRNA expression level of IR-B and an increased IR-A/IR-B mRNA ratio in NSCLC and other tumor types. The relationship of altered IR-A/IR-B ratios with cancer progression and patient survival should be prospectively explored in future studies. Citation Format: Jiaqi Huang, Wei Zhu, Liyan Jiang, Katie Streicher, Chris Morehouse, Philip Brohawn, XiaoXiao Ge, Zhengwei Dong, Xiaolu Yin, Guanshan Zhu, Yi Gu, Parthiv Mahadevia, Brandon W. Higgs, Yihong Yao. Increased IR-A/IR-B ratio in non-small cell lung cancers associates with lower epithelial-mesenchymal transition signature and longer survival in squamous cell lung carcinoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 4909. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-4909