GOLPH3: a novel biomarker that correlates with poor survival and resistance to chemotherapy in breast cancer

// Shicong Tang 1 , Hong Pan 2 , Wei Wei 1 , Huawei Yang 1 , Jianlun Liu 1 and Rirong Yang 3 1 Department of Breast Surgery, Affiliated Tumor Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, People’s Republic of China 2 Department of Thoracic Surgery, Affiliated Tumor Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, People’s Republic of China 3 Department of Immunology, School of Preclinical Medicine, Guangxi Medical University, Guangxi, People’s Republic of China Correspondence to: Rirong Yang, email: 520yrr@163.com Jianlun Liu, email: liu_jianlun@126.com Keywords: GOLPH3; breast cancer; chemotherapy; survival Received: May 19, 2017     Accepted: August 04, 2017     Published: October 19, 2017 ABSTRACT The association between Golgi phosphoprotein 3 (GOLPH3) and clinical pathological characteristics, as well as the clinical outcomes of both neoadjuvant and adjuvant chemotherapies in breast cancer, remain largely unknown. In this study, we investigated the biological role and clinical significance of GOLPH3 in breast cancer. We found that GOLPH3 expression in tumor tissue was higher than that in adjacent noncancerous tissue (ANT) and fibroadenoma. GOLPH3 silencing reduced the migration, invasion, and proliferation of breast cancer cells and promoted apoptosis of the cells. Importantly, patients with high GOLPH3 expression had worse disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS), and GOLPH3 expression was correlated with clinical pathological characteristics such as molecular subtype, tumor-node-metastasis classification, and age but was not associated with surgery type. Patients with high GOLPH3 expression had poor DFS and OS in every molecular subtype, and an increase in tumor invasion and lymph node metastasis. The risk of recurrence increased with age in patients with high GOLPH3 expression, and surgery type had no influence on patient survival. This is the first study to investigate the correlation between GOLPH3 and response to chemotherapy in breast cancer. Patients with high GOLPH3 expression showed resistance to neoadjuvant and adjuvant chemotherapies, and GOLPH3 overexpression indicated a high risk of recurrence in patients who received adjuvant chemotherapy. These data suggest that GOLPH3 may be a novel biomarker that correlates with poor survival and resistance to chemotherapy in breast cancer.