Clinicopathologic significance and race-specific prognostic association of MYB overexpression in ovarian cancer

Late diagnosis, unreliable prognostic assessment, and poorly-guided therapeutic planning result in dismal survival of ovarian cancer (OC) patients. Therefore, identifying novel functional biomarker(s) is highly desired for improved clinical management. MYB is an oncogenic transcription factor with emerging functional significance in OC. Here we examined its clinicopathologic significance by immunohistochemistry and TCGA/GTex data analyses. Aberrant MYB expression was detected in 94% of OC cases (n=373), but not in the normal ovarian tissues (n=23). MYB was overexpressed in all major epithelial OC histological subtypes exhibiting the highest incidence (similar to 97%) and overall expression in serous and mucinous carcinomas. MYB expression correlated positively with tumor grades and stages. Moreover, MYB exhibited race-specific prognostic association. Moderate-to-high MYB levels were significantly associated with both poor overall- (p=0.02) and progression-free (p=0.02) survival in African American (AA), but not in the Caucasian American (CA) patients. Consistent with immunohistochemistry data, we observed significantly higher MYB transcripts in OC cases (n=426) than normal ovary (n=88). MYB transcripts were significantly higher in all epithelial OC subtypes, compared to normal, and its greater levels predicted poor survival in AA OC, but not CA OC, patients. Thus, MYB appears to be a useful clinical biomarker for prognostication, especially in AA patients.

Automated summary

The study found that aberrant MYB expression in ovarian cancer is positively correlated with tumor grades and stages, and has race-specific prognostic value for African American patients, but not for Caucasian American patients. High levels of MYB transcripts in epithelial ovarian cancer subtypes are associated with poor survival in African American patients, highlighting MYB as a potentially useful clinical biomarker for prognosis in this population.