Integrative analysis of CXCR4/CXCL12 axis gene expression alterations in breast cancer and its prognostic relevance

Cancer metastasis is the major delimiting factor in the failure of therapeutic strategies currently practised and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) has been observed to be one of the key regulators of metastasis as it confers the invasive phenotype. Chemokines have been shown to be directly involved in mediating the metastatic ability of cancer cells, particularly CXCR4 chemokine receptor. The purpose of the present study was to explore the expression levels of CXCR4/CXCL12 axis in different subtypes of breast cancer using dataset analysis. The mRNA expression levels and genomic alterations of CXCR4 and CXCL12 in different cancers were analyzed via the Oncomine and cBioPortal. In addition, co-expression analysis, mutations and clinical survival relevance has been analyzed in various datasets. Results of our analysis suggest a significant association of CXCR4/CXCL12 axis in breast cancer and as a potential prognostic biomarker.