Investigation of alterations in PIK3CA and OCT-4 gene expression in breast cancer

Breast cancer (BCa) is one of the most prevalent cancer amongst women and PIK3CA mutations have a crucial role in carcinogenesis. On the other hand, Octamer-Binding Transcription Factor 4 (OCT-4) is common biomarkers of cancer stem cells, which provide to the pathological processes of numerous carcinomas. In this study, we evaluated the association of OCT-4 gene expression levels with the PIK3CA mutation in BCa patients. The mRNA expression level of the OCT-4 gene was detected by qPCR in 44 BCa patients and 30 BCa patients control have positive PIK3CA mutations. Exon 9 and exon 20 of PIK3CA mutations were identified by sequencing. OCT-4 gene expression and PIK3CA mutations were also clinically evaluated in BCa patients. The frequency of PIK3CA mutation in 44 new cases were 32%. PIK3CA mutations were significantly associated with HER2-positive (p = 0.0271) status, Ki-67 status (p = 0.0434) and patient age (p = 0.0149). OCT-4 mRNA expression was significantly higher in the BCa tissue in comparison to normal breast tissue (p = 0.0305). A significant correlation was found between expression of OCT-4 and node status (p = 0.0190). OCT-4 mRNA expression was higher in the PIK3CA mutation tissue than the wild type tissue. However, no association was found between the expression of OCT-4 and the PIK3CA mutation or wild type samples (p = 0.7908). Our results provided that OCT-4 gene and PIK3CA mutations may have a role in development of BCa. OCT-4 mRNA expression level and PIK3CA mutations have a potential important for BCa diagnosis or treatment.