PRL-3 expression was analyzed in 24 pairs of breast cancer and normal tissues using the reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction assay.
Analysis of survival parameters revealed a shorter disease-free survival (DFS) in patients with PRL-3-positive carcinomas, and in particular a significantly shorter DFS in nodal-positive patients with PRL-3 overexpressing tumours as compared to PRL-3-negative breast carcinomas (66+/-7 months (95% CI, 52-80) vs 97+/-9 months (95% CI, 79-115); P = 0.032).
In tumor cells, PRL-3 mRNA levels varied markedly with high expression in SKNAS neuroblastoma, MCF-7 and BT474 breast carcinoma, Hep3B hepatocellular carcinoma, and HCT116 colon carcinoma.
Summarily, our findings demonstrate that PRL-3-targeted DNA vaccine can generate significantly preventive and therapeutic effects on the growth of breast cancer expressing PRL-3 through the induction of cellular immune responses to PRL-3.