ZNF503 combined with GATA3 is a prognostic factor in triple-negative breast cancer

Abstract

Purpose Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a subtype of breast cancer with poor prognosis. Therefore, there is an urgent need to identify prognostic markers to improve current treatment and therapeutic strategies. The transcriptional factor ZNF503 has been reported to promote aggressive breast cancer development through the down-regulation of GATA3 expression and has been identified as a candidate predictive marker. In this study, we explored whether ZNF503 and GATA3 could serve as prognostic markers independently or in combination. Material and methods We performed a survival analysis of 989 breast cancer patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), and validated the findings in 202 breast cancer patients from tissue microarray (TMA). Results In TCGA database, the mRNA expression of GATA3 and ZNF503 could not predict TNBC prognosis alone, though the ratio index, ZNF503/GATA3 could be a novel prognostic biomarker in TNBC patients. In TMA database, we detected the protein expression of ZNF503 and GATA3 and found that the combination of the two genes, ZNF503-GATA3, significantly improved the predictive ability of clinical outcomes. Conclusions The results indicated that the binding index of ZNF503 and GATA3 could be used as a prognostic biomarker in TNBC.