High expression of TRAF4 predicts poor prognosis in tamoxifen-treated breast cancer and promotes tamoxifen resistance

Anticancer Drugs. 2020 Jul;31(6):558-566. doi: 10.1097/CAD.0000000000000943.

Abstract

Tamoxifen is the main adjuvant endocrine therapeutic agent for patients with estrogen receptor positive breast cancer. However, the resistance to tamoxifen has become a serious clinical challenge and the underlying mechanisms are still poorly understood. TRAF4 is a member of tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated factor family and its role in tamoxifen resistance has not been found. In this study, we aimed to explore the roles of TRAF4 in tamoxifen-treated breast cancer and tamoxifen resistance. Through high-throughput sequencing and differential gene expression analyses, TRAF4 was identified as the research object in this study. The prognosis significance of TRAF4 was studied based on 155 tamoxifen-treated breast cancer patients obtained from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. We then investigated the TRAF4 expression level in tamoxifen-resistant and the tamoxifen-sensitive breast cancer cell lines with western blot and real-time quantitative PCR. The loss- and gain-of-function assay of TRAF4 in a tamoxifen-resistant cell line was evaluated using colony formation experiments and cell count kit-8 assay. We identified that TRAF4 was overexpressed in tamoxifen-resistant breast cancer cell line and TRAF4 overexpression was associated with worse overall survival (hazard ratio = 2.538, P = 0.017) and cancer-specific survival (hazard ratio = 2.713, P = 0.036) in tamoxifen-treated patients. Knockdown of TRAF4 reversed tamoxifen resistance, while overexpression of TRAF4 increased tamoxifen resistance, which confirmed the role of TRAF4 in tamoxifen resistance. Taken together, our study demonstrated that TRAF4 could be a novel prognostic biomarker for tamoxifen-treated breast cancer patients and a potential therapeutic target for tamoxifen resistance.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal / therapeutic use*
  • Apoptosis
  • Biomarkers, Tumor / genetics
  • Biomarkers, Tumor / metabolism*
  • Breast Neoplasms / drug therapy*
  • Breast Neoplasms / enzymology
  • Breast Neoplasms / pathology
  • Cell Proliferation
  • Drug Resistance, Neoplasm*
  • Female
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic
  • Humans
  • Prognosis
  • Survival Rate
  • TNF Receptor-Associated Factor 4 / genetics
  • TNF Receptor-Associated Factor 4 / metabolism*
  • Tamoxifen / therapeutic use*
  • Tumor Cells, Cultured

Substances

  • Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal
  • Biomarkers, Tumor
  • TNF Receptor-Associated Factor 4
  • TRAF4 protein, human
  • Tamoxifen