Differential Expression and Prognostic Significance of STARD3 Gene in Breast Carcinoma.

StAR related lipid transfer domain containing 3 () gene has been reported to be co-amplified with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 () in breast carcinoma. STARD3 is necessary for cholesterol transfer and metabolism in tumor cells. The possible role played by as a diagnostic and prognostic biomarker was investigated in breast cancer (BC). Data mining was performed using several bioinformatics websites to investigate the correlation of with BC and its molecular subtypes, and conventional PCR was used to detect the mRNA levels in a panel of BC cell lines. was overexpressed in BC more than the other types of cancer. The results also showed that expression was significantly associated with HER2 BC tumors and BC cell lines, and low STARD3 mRNA and protein expression levels were observed in estrogen receptor-positive (ER) and triple-negative BC (TNBC) patients. Moreover, high expression levels predicted worse overall survival (OS), relapse-free survival (RFS) and disease metastasis-free survival (DMFS) in BC, and HER2 BC. Notably, low expression of was associated with poor OS in ER BC. Our findings suggest that may have strong diagnostic and prognostic value for HER2 breast carcinoma.