Differential expression of SERINC2 in cancers of the breast.

Breast cancer affects women at relatively high frequency (1). We mined published microarray datasets (2, 3) to determine in an unbiased fashion and at the level of the transcriptome genes most differentially expressed in the primary tumors of women with breast cancer. We found significant differential expression of the gene encoding serine incorporator 2, SERINC2, when comparing primary tumors of the breast to the tissue of origin, the normal breast: in women aged 70 and higher, and in women aged 45 and younger. SERINC2 mRNA was present at significantly higher quantities in tumors of the breast as compared to normal breast tissue. Analysis of human survival data revealed that expression of SERINC2 in primary tumors of the breast was correlated with distant metastasis-free survival in patients with normal-like subtype breast cancer, demonstrating a relationship between primary tumor expression of a differentially expressed gene and patient survival outcomes influenced by PAM50 molecular subtype. SERINC2 may be of relevance to initiation, maintenance or progression of cancers of the female breast.