Thromb Haemost 2004; 91(01): 180-186
DOI: 10.1160/TH03-05-0261
Cellular Proteolysis and Oncology
Schattauer GmbH

Expression analysis of the human kallikrein 7 (KLK7) in breast tumors: a new potential biomarker for prognosis of breast carcinoma

Maroulio Talieri
1   ”G. Papanicolaou” Research Center of Oncology, “Saint Savas” Hospital, Athens, Greece
,
Eleftherios P. Diamandis
2   Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital, and Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
,
Dimitrios Gourgiotis
3   Research Laboratories, Second Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of Athens, Athens, Greece
,
Kostandina Mathioudaki
1   ”G. Papanicolaou” Research Center of Oncology, “Saint Savas” Hospital, Athens, Greece
,
Andreas Scorilas
4   Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Biology, University of Athens, Athens, Greece
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Publikationsverlauf

Received 04. Mai 2003

Accepted after revision 07. September 2003

Publikationsdatum:
30. November 2017 (online)

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Summary

Kallikreins are a subgroup of serine proteases that are involved in the post-translational processing of polypeptide precursors. Growing evidence suggests that many kallikreins are implicated in carcinogenesis. Human kallikrein gene 7 (KLK7; HSCCE) is a new member of the human kallikrein gene family. KLK7 is expressed in normal breast tissue and is up-regulated in breast cancer cells by estrogens and glucocorticoids. In the present study, expression of the KLK7 gene in 92 breast cancer tissues was analyzed by reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) and direct sequencing of several samples. The results were correlated with other clinicopathological variables and patient outcome. KLK7 gene expression was significantly lower in breast cancer patients of low stage (I/II) (p = 0.011) and patients with positive progesterone receptors (p = 0.022). Survival analysis showed that breast cancer patients with KLK7 positive tumors have relatively shorter disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) than patients with KLK7 negative tumors. These data suggest that KLK7 gene expression may be used as a marker of unfavorable prognosis for breast cancer patients.