SUCLA2-USP10 interaction rather than SUCLA2 alone correlates with metastasis in breast cancer patients
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Aims: Translating pre-clinical findings into clinical evidence is essential for cancer research. Although succinyl-CoA ligase ADP-forming subunit beta (SUCLA2) has been implicated in metastasis through stress granule assembly in pre-clinical ...
MoreAims: Translating pre-clinical findings into clinical evidence is essential for cancer research. Although succinyl-CoA ligase ADP-forming subunit beta (SUCLA2) has been implicated in metastasis through stress granule assembly in pre-clinical models, direct clinical evidence linking SUCLA2, alone or in interaction with stress granule components such as ubiquitin-specific peptidase 10 (USP10), to distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) remains limited. This study aimed to evaluate whether the SUCLA2-USP10 interaction correlates with breast cancer DMFS and whether treatment modifies this association.
Methods: We analyzed four independent breast cancer cohorts with DMFS data (GSE17705, GSE45255, GSE7390, and GSE11121). Patients were stratified into four subgroups based on median SUCLA2 and USP10 expression levels: low-SUCLA2/low-USP10 (LL), low-SUCLA2/high-USP10 (LH), high-SUCLA2/low-USP10 (HL), and high-SUCLA2/high-USP10 (HH). Stratified Cox regression was applied, with cohort as the stratification factor, to examine whether the prognostic impact of these subgroups differed between treated and untreated patients.
Results: A significant interaction was observed between treatment status and SUCLA2-USP10 subgroup membership, specifically for the LH subgroup (p = 0.00038). In untreated patients, the LH subgroup exhibited a significantly higher risk for DMFS (HR = 2.45), whereas in treated patients, this elevated risk was completely abrogated (HR = 0.71). Neither SUCLA2 nor USP10 alone showed a consistent association with DMFS across the four cohorts.
Conclusion: These findings provide clinical evidence that the SUCLA2-USP10 interaction, rather than either factor alone, correlates with breast cancer DMFS. The treatment-modulated risk reversal observed in the LH subgroup supports the development of anti-metastatic strategies targeting this interaction.
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Xinwei He, ... Xiaoqiang Sun
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.70401/cbm.2026.0022 - July 22, 2026
