High Expression of F11R/JAM‐A is Predominant in Triple‐negative Breast Cancer Subtype and Correlates with Poor Prognosis in Breast Cancer Patients

Abstract

Breast cancer (BrC) is the leading type of cancer in women, accounting for 25% of all female tumor cases. It affects about 13% of women worldwide and is the most common cause of cancer‐related death in women. Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease that contains several subtypes with substantial differences in pathology and clinical outcome. F11 receptor (F11R), also known as the junctional adhesion molecules‐A (JAM‐A), is one of the members of an immunoglobulin superfamily of cell adhesion receptors. F11R is a component of tight junction molecules and involved in a variety of physiological processes including cell polarity, cell morphology and leukocyte migration. Overexpression of F11R has been reported in BrC, but its correlation with clinical prognosis is controversial. In this study, we investigated and clarified the role of F11R in breast carcinogenesis. Two BrC cohorts with a total of 542 cases were used to confirm the correlation of F11R expression and the clinical outcome. High expression of F11R was found to be associated with tumor size (p=0.035), grading (p=0.001), and recurrence (p=0.001) in BrC. Cox model analysis revealed that high expression of F11R is significantly associated with poor overall and disease‐free survival in BrC patients. Interestingly, high expression of F11R is predominant in triple‐negative breast cancer (TNBC, >65%) subtype and is inversely correlated with the expression of estrogen and progesterone receptors. Our data validated the expression of F11R in BrC, suggesting that it is a valuable biomarker for prognostic prediction of recurrence and survival, especially for TNBC.Support or Funding InformationThis research was supported by Academia Sinica [AS‐SUMMIT‐108].