An In Silico Analysis Identified Members of the Pleckstrin Homology-Like Domain, Family B (PHLDB family) as Potential Prognostic and Predictive Biomarkers of Treatment Response in Breast Cancer Patients

Abstract

Objective: Breast cancer is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in women worldwide. This malignant neoplasm can be classified into four clinically relevant subtypes according to the expression of a number of biomarkers. However, these tumors show considerable intratumoral heterogeneity and multidrug resistance. Members of the pleckstrin homology-like domain, family B (PHLDB) play a critical role in the regulation of p53 and AKT signaling pathways, important for cancer and cellular metabolism. The present study was performed to evaluate the expression pattern of PHLDB family members in breast cancer and its potential prognostic and predictive value for therapeutic response using bioinformatics tools. Materials and Methods: This in silico analysis was performed using several online repositories, including UALCAN, GEPIA2, bc-GenExMiner, KM Plotter, PrognoScan and ROC Plotter. Results: PHLDB family genes were found to be differentially expressed in tumor samples when compared to healthy breast tissue samples. Furthermore, epigenetic regulation may be one of the regulatory mechanisms for the expression of these markers. The PHLDB family of genes proved to be potential markers for predicting the development of lymph node metastasis (p