The differential expression of aqueous soluble proteins in breast
normal and cancerous tissues in relation to ethnicity of the patients; Chinese, Malay and Indian
Affiliations: School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University Sains
Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia | Department of Surgery, Penang General Hospital,
Penang, Malaysia
Note: [] Corresponding author: Dr. Lay-Harn Gam, School of
Pharmaceutical Sciences, University Sains Malaysia, 11800 USM, Penang,
Malaysia. Tel.: +60 4 6533888 ext 2208; Fax: +60 4 6570017; E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: Female breast cancer is one of the leading causes of female
mortality worldwide. In Malaysia, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed
cancer in women. Of the women in Malaysia, the Chinese have the highest number
of breast cancer cases, followed by the Indian and the Malay. The most common
type of breast cancer is infiltrating ductal carcinoma (IDC). A proteomic
approach was applied in this study to identify changes in the protein profile
of cancerous tissues compared with normal tissues from 18 patients; 8 Chinese,
6 Malay and 4 Indian were analysed. Twenty-four differentially expressed
hydrophilic proteins were identified. We evaluated the potential of these
proteins as biomarkers for infiltrating ductal carcinoma based on their
ethnic-specific expressions. Three of the upregulated proteins, calreticulin,
14-3-3 protein zeta and 14-3-3 protein eta, were found to be expressed at a
significantly higher level in the cancerous breast tissues when compared with
the normal tissues in cases of infiltrating ductal carcinoma. The upregulation
in expression was particularly dominant in the Malay cohort.
Keywords: Breast cancer, proteomics, biomarkers, ethnicity
