Gankyrin is frequently overexpressed in breast cancer and is associated with ErbB2 expression

Gankyrin is a subunit of the 26S proteasome, and has been known to degrade p53 and retinoblastoma protein and promote the tumorigenicity and metastasis in some malignancies. However, the role of gankyrin in breast cancer has not been explored. In this study, we investigated the expression of gankyrin in breast cancer and evaluated its effect on breast cancer. Representative cancer tissues including normal breasts from 60 patients with breast cancer were stained immunohistochemically for gankyrin, estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and ErbB2. We evaluated the relationship between gankyrin expression and clinicopathologic parameters or prognostic markers. We also attempted to clarify the mechanism of gankyrin involved in breast carcinogenesis by using MCF7 breast cancer cells. Gankyrin was weakly expressed in normal breast epithelial cells, however, tumor regions of 37/60 (61.7%) cases showed an overexpression of gankyrin. Gankyrin overexpression was associated with extensive intraductal carcinoma (p = 0.014) and ErbB2 positivity (p = 0.031) in invasive ductal carcinoma. In MCF7 breast cancer cells, downregulation of gankyrin was associated with a reduction of cell proliferation and tumorigenicity. In conclusion, gankyrin was identified in normal breasts and overexpressed in invasive breast cancers. The overexpression of gankyrin was associated with extensive intraductal carcinoma and ErbB2 expression in breast cancer.