ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Breast Cancer
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1648842
Expression Patterns of MRP2 in Circulating Tumor Cells of Breast Cancer: A Single-Institution Study
Provisionally accepted
- 1Jinan University, Guangzhou, China
- 2The Second Affiliated Hospital Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China
- 3Shenzhen People's Hospital Department of Thyroid and Breast Surgery, Shenzhen, China
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Background: Breast cancer metastasis remains a major oncology challenge, with circulating tumor cells (CTCs) driving dissemination and multidrug resistance (MDR) hindering treatment efficacy. MRP2, an ABC transporter linked to MDR, may promote CTC survival; however, its expression in CTCs and its association with epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in breast cancer remain underexplored. Materials and methods: A total of 52 breast cancer patients were recruited for the study, from whom circulating tumor cells (CTCs) were isolated from 5 ml of peripheral blood samples utilizing the CanpatrolTM CTC detection platform. Subsequently, a comprehensive multiple mRNA in situ analysis (MRIA) employing diverse molecular markers was conducted to accurately identify and categorize CTCs. The relationships between CTC counts, subtypes (epithelial type, E type; hybrid epithelial/mesenchymal type, H type; mesenchymal type, M type), and MRP2 expression in CTCs were analyzed using Spearman's correlation coefficient. Statistical analyses were performed using the SPSS software. Results: CTCs were detected in 94.2% of patients. H-type CTCs and MRP2 (+) CTCs were significantly associated with larger tumor size (P <0.05). MRP2 expression was higher in (H+M)-type than in E-type CTCs (P <0.001). EMT grade was positively correlated with MRP2 (+) CTCs grade and high MRP2 expression (R = 0.283, P = 0.042), with strong correlations between all CTC subtypes and MRP2 expression. Conclusion: This study pioneers the MRP2-CTCs-EMT axis in breast cancer, clarifying MRP2's role in CTC biology and EMT, providing a theoretical basis for combined targeting strategies to improve metastatic breast cancer management.
Keywords: MRP2, breast cancer, circulating tumor cells, EMT, multiplex RNA in situ analysis
Received: 19 Jun 2025; Accepted: 08 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Guan, Li and Zhou. 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: Wenbin Zhou, Shenzhen People's Hospital Department of Thyroid and Breast Surgery, Shenzhen, China
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