Potential Significance and Clinical Value Explorations of Calmin (CLMN) in Breast Invasive Carcinoma

OBJECTIVE: Function of calmin (CLMN) was rarely reported in human diseases, especially in tumor. Present study initially assessed the significance of CLMN in breast invasive carcinoma (BRCA). METHODS: Expressions of CLMN containing mRNA and protein in BRCA was firstly assessed, and association of CLMN mRNA expression with clinical phenotypes of BRCA patients was analyzed as well. Prognostic value of CLMN in BRCA was subsequently predicted based on the clinical characteristics of patients. Finally, the potential biological function associated with CLMN involved in BRCA was revealed. RESULTS: (1) The mRNA expression of CLMN was lower in BRCA compared with that in normal patients (P<0.001). However, result of CLMN total protein expression was opposite (P<0.05). (2) The mRNA expression of CLMN was statistically associated with BRCA patient’s age, gender, PR status, ER status, histological type, tumor stage, copy number, and methylation level (all P<0.05). (3) Compared with low expression group, high expression of CLMN was conducive to the overall survival of BRCA patients (P=0.0011). Detailed, survival difference between CLMN high and low expression groups was observed in patients with stage 1 (P=0.0250), positive ER status (P=0.0042), negative HER status (P=0.0433), luminal A (P=0.0065), luminal B (P=0.0123) and positive lymph node status (P=0.0069). Pathway analysis suggested that CLMN mainly participated in cell cycle process (P<0.05) and exerted inhibition effect on the cell cycle involved in BRCA (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: CLMN mRNA high expression prolonged the survival time of patients and caused a favorable prognosis. The positive function of CLMN in BRCA required further investigation in future work.