Breast cancer (BC) remains among the most commonly diagnosed cancers in women worldwide. Triple-negative BC (TNBC) is a subset of BC characterized by aggressive behavior, a high risk of distant recurrence, and poor overall survival rates. Chemotherapy is the backbone for treatment in patients with TNBC, but outcomes remain poor compared to other BC subtypes, in part due to the lack of recognized functional targets. In this study, the expression of the tetraspan protein epithelial membrane protein 2 (EMP2) was explored as a predictor of TNBC response to standard chemotherapy. We demonstrate that EMP2 functions as a prognostic biomarker for patients treated with taxane-based chemotherapy, with high expression at both transcriptomic and protein levels following treatment correlating with poor overall survival. Moreover, we show that targeting EMP2 in combination with docetaxel reduces tumor load in syngeneic and xenograft models of TNBC. These results provide support for the prognostic and therapeutic potential of this tetraspan protein, suggesting that anti-EMP2 therapy may be beneficial for the treatment of select chemotherapy-resistant TNBC tumors.
乳腺癌（BC）仍是全球女性最常见的癌症之一。三阴性乳腺癌（TNBC）作为乳腺癌的一个亚型，具有侵袭性强、远处复发风险高及总体生存率低的特点。化疗是TNBC患者的主要治疗手段，但与其他乳腺癌亚型相比疗效仍不理想，部分原因在于缺乏明确的功能性治疗靶点。本研究探讨了四跨膜蛋白上皮膜蛋白2（EMP2）的表达作为TNBC对标准化疗反应预测指标的价值。我们证实EMP2可作为接受紫杉烷类化疗患者的预后生物标志物，治疗后转录组及蛋白水平的高表达与患者较差的总体生存率相关。此外，在TNBC同源移植和异种移植模型中，靶向EMP2联合多西他赛治疗可降低肿瘤负荷。这些结果支持了该四跨膜蛋白的预后判断及治疗潜力，表明抗EMP2疗法可能对特定化疗耐药性TNBC肿瘤的治疗具有积极意义。
EMP2 Serves as a Functional Biomarker for Chemotherapy-Resistant Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
肿瘤(癌症)患者之家