ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Breast Cancer
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1624870
Expression of Insulin-like growth factor 2 mRNA-binding protein 3 and its diagnostic value in breast cancer
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Pathology,Affiliated Dongyang Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Dongyang, China
- 2Department of Medical Oncology, Affiliated Dongyang Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Dongyang, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
There is currently no established systematic explanation of the clinical application and diagnostic value of insulin-like growth factor 2 mRNA-binding protein 3 (IGF2BP3) in breast cancer. This study utilized immunohistochemistry (IHC) to assess the expression of the IGF2BP3 protein in 299 cases of breast cancer tissues, with the aim of investigating the clinical and diagnostic significance of IGF2BP3 in breast cancer.Our results showed that the positivity rate of IGF2BP3 in breast cancer tissues was 11.4% (34/299), significantly higher than that in normal breast tissues (0.0%, 0/60) (P=0.006). IGF2BP3 levels were found to be elevated in breast cancer cases with higher tumor grade, ER negative, PR negative, HER2 negative, higher Ki-67 index, and the triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) molecular subtype (all P<0.05).Conversely, the presence of IGF2BP3 was less common in breast cancer cases with axillary lymph node metastasis and advanced tumor stage (both P<0.05). In a multiple logistic regression analysis, the independent predictors of IGF2BP3 expression in breast cancer were TNBC status (odds ratio = 3.408; 95% confidence interval:1.026-11.321; P=0.045) and axillary lymph node metastasis (0.200; 0.068-0.593; P=0.004). We further analyzed the value of IGF2BP3 in the differential diagnosis of breast cancer and normal breast tissue, as well as the differential diagnosis of TNBC and non-TNBC. The results showed that the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of IGF2BP3 positive prediction for breast cancer were 11.4%, 100.0%, 100.0%, and 18.5%, respectively; and for TNBC, the corresponding values for IGF2BP3 positive prediction were 38.0%, 98.2%, 88.2%, and 81.5%, respectively. In all breast cancer or TNBC patients, no clear relationship between patient prognosis and IGF2BP3 expression was observed. We suggest that IGF2BP3 is upregulated in breast cancer, especially in TNBC, and has potential diagnostic value for breast cancer and TNBC.
Keywords: insulin-like growth factor 2 mRNA-binding protein 3, IGF2BP3, breast cancer, Immunohistochemistry, prognosis
Received: 08 May 2025; Accepted: 17 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Shao, Wang, Lu, Jiang, Du and Huang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Chao-Qun Wang, Department of Pathology,Affiliated Dongyang Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Dongyang, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.