(Health Korea News / Siwoo Lee) Prognosis-related markers that are important for predicting the prognosis of young breast cancer patients and establishing customized treatment strategies have been discovered. The National Cancer Center’s breast cancer research team and Professor Kyung-Ah Yoon of Konkuk University conducted a study to identify ‘prognostic relevance of young breast cancer patients through proteogenomic analysis’, and the results will be published in Experimental & Molecular, the official journal of the Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, on November 1, 2024. Published in Medicine.
This study was conducted in collaboration with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as part of the research of the National Cancer Center Cancer Protein Genome Research Project (Director Jongbae Park) and a public interest cancer research project. The research team analyzed genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic data and clinical characteristics from pre-treatment tumor tissues of 126 young breast cancer patients under 40 years of age to discover prognostic markers.
Previously, breast cancer was classified according to the expression of female hormone receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and HER2 (human epidermal growth factor receptor type 2). ER and PR are hormone receptors, and their expression determines the application of hormone therapy. HER2 is a protein involved in the growth and proliferation of breast cancer cells, and plays an important role in selecting targeted treatments.
Based on proteogenomic data, the research team divided young breast cancer patients into five molecular subtypes and established indicators that can more accurately predict the clinical and biological characteristics of patients.
In particular, ‘HER2 proteogenomic (HER2 PG) status’ was newly defined, which reflects not only the amplification of the HER2 gene but also the activation level of the HER2 protein. It was also confirmed that the phosphorylation status at Serine 1054 of the HER2 protein is an important indicator in predicting prognosis and treatment responsiveness. These results provide important clues for precise treatment of HER2-positive breast cancer, which accounts for a high proportion of East Asian women.
In addition, a new index that can predict homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) status based on 20 proteins was presented. This indicator has shown the potential to additionally predict HRD-positive patients who may be missed in gene-based testing, and is expected to contribute to expanding accessibility to targeted treatment and maximizing treatment effectiveness.
Professor Jeong So-yeon of the National Cancer Center Graduate School of Cancer, who participated as the first author of this study, said, “Young breast cancer patients are reported to have a poor prognosis, so specialized treatment strategies are needed for them,” and “The prognosis prediction marker discovered in this study “We expect that they will have a high possibility of being used for diagnosis and treatment in the future.”
Professor Kyung-ah Yoon of Konkuk University said, “By classifying detailed groups through proteogenomic analysis, we will be able to derive an index that can predict clinical prognosis and present an optimal treatment strategy through customized patient treatment.”
Park Jong-bae, head of the Cancer Protein Genomics Division at the National Cancer Center, said, “This achievement is the result of close research cooperation with the U.S. National Cancer Institute,” and added, “We will continue to strive to realize customized treatment to overcome incurable cancer through cooperation between the two institutions.” .
This research outcome has been selected as one of the ‘People who made Korea shine (Hanbitsa)’ by the Biological Research Information Center (BRIC), and is expected to provide an important turning point in predicting the prognosis and establishing customized treatment strategies for young breast cancer patients.
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