Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a subtype of breast cancer with poor prognosis and high heterogeneity. The aim of this study was to screen patients for single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with the prognosis of TNBC. Database-derived SNPs (NextBio, Ensembl, NCBI and MirSNP) located in the 3'-untranslated regions (3'-UTRs) of genes that are differentially expressed in breast cancer were selected. The possible associations between 111 SNPs and progression risk among 323 TNBC patients were investigated using a two-step case-control study with a discovery cohort (n=162) and a validation cohort (n=161). We identified the rs1054135 SNP in the adipocyte fatty acid binding protein 4 (FABP4) gene as a predictor of TNBC recurrence. The G allele of rs1054135 was associated with a reduced risk of disease progression as well as a prolonged disease-free survival time (DFS), with a hazard ratio (HR) for recurrence in the combined sample of 0.269 [95%CI: 0.098-0.735;P=0.001]. Notably, for individuals having the rs1054135 SNP with the AA/AG genotype, the magnitude of increased tumour recurrence risk for overweight patients (BMI≥25kg/m2) was significantly elevated (HR2.53; 95%CI: 1.06-6.03). Immunohistochemical staining of adipocytes adjacent to TNBC tissues showed that the expression level of FABP4 was statistically significantly lower in patients with the rs1054135-GG genotype and those in the disease-free group (P=0.0004 and P=0.0091, respectively). These results suggested that the expression of a lipid metabolism-related gene and an important SNP in the 3'-UTR of FABP4 are associated with TNBC prognosis, which may aid in the screening of high-risk patients with TNBC recurrence and the development of novel chemotherapeutic agents.
Keywords: 3′-untranslated regions; FABP4; genetic variant; prognosis; triple-negative breast cancer.