Abstract
The ERM family is composed of the proteins ezrin, moesin and radixin, which are cell structure-related proteins. Despite the detection of viable roles of ERM family proteins, the impact of these molecules in cancer pathogenesis has yet to be investigated. Evidence emerging from clinical and translational studies showed that the ERM family is linked to disease progression in clinical cancers. We aimed to establish the pattern of expression of the ERM proteins and deduce a possible relationship between these molecules and clinical outcome in a cohort of human breast cancers. The expression of the three ERM molecules at the mRNA and protein levels in a cohort of 122 human breast cancers and 32 normal breast tissues were analysed and correlated with pathological and clinical information as well as patient outcome. The three molecules were positively stained in mammary tissues while the staining pattern was lost in the malignant cells. Low levels of moesin and radixin transcripts were seen in tumours from patients with metastasis, local recurrence and in patients who succumbed to the disease (moesin: p=0.039, p=0.037 and p=0.066, respectively, and radixin: p=0.039, p=0.039 and p=0.04, respectively). Ezrin levels were significantly lower in tumour recurrence and in patients who succumbed to the disease (p=0.0001 and p=0.59, respectively). Using the Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, a general trend of higher levels of ERM was observed, with marginal long overall and disease-free survival. In conclusion, an inverse relationship between ERM expression and tumour behaviour of breast cancer patients was noted. However, further work needs to be conducted in other types of cancer in clinical situations to obtain consistent results.