High expression of PLA2G16 is associated with a better prognosis in HER2-positive breast cancer

Background: PLA2G16 functions as a phosphatase in metabolism and its abnormal expression is closely associated with tumor progression. The aim of this study is to investigate the prognosis value of PLA2G16 in breast cancer. Methods: A tissue microarray including 200 invasive ductal carcinoma specimens was constructed. Immunohistochemistry was performed to determine the PLA2G16 expression status. The Kaplan-Meier analysis and log-rank test were used to evaluate the prognostic value of PLA2G16. The Multivariate Cox regression analysis was performed to identify whether PLA2G16 was an independent prognostic factor. Results: In our retrospective study, Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that elevated PLA2G16 expression was correlated with improved DFS (P = 0.032) in the whole breast cancer patients. In further subgroup analysis, PLA2G16 overexpression was found to be associated with prolonged DFS (P = 0.018) in HER2-positive breast cancer patients. More importantly, Multivariate analysis suggested that PLA2G16 was a significant independent prognostic factor in HER2-enriched patients [hazard ratio (HR) = 0.151; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.034-0.672; P = 0.013]. Conclusions: Our study evaluated the prognostic significance of PLA2G16 in patients with HER2- positive breast cancer and confirmed the relevance of this metabolism-related gene in patient outcome.