Predictive role of Ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme E2T in recurrence-free survival and aromatase inhibitor responsiveness in breast cancer

Background: Ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme E2T (UBE2T), an E2 ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme, is verified to play an important role in the tumorigenesis of various cancers. By downregulation of BRCA1, UBE2T affects the growth of BC cells. However, the clinical significance of UBE2T is uncertain. To explore the role of UBE2T in breast cancer (BC). Methods: Firstly, we analyzed the correlations between UBE2T and clinicopathological characteristics of BC by the TCGA database. Next, Cox regression and Kaplan-Meier analysis were utilized for association between clinicopathological features and the overall survival (OS). Kaplan-Meier analysis and ROC plotter were used for survival analysis and drug sensitivity. Results：UBE2T was significantly upregulated in BC in comparison with para cancer tissue(p<0.001). The high expression of UBE2T is related to lager tumor sizes (p=0.006) and later clinical stages (p=0.001). UBE2T is verified to be correlated with ER, PR, HER2 status of BC. The expression level of UBE2T varies in different molecular subtypes of BC. Further research revealed that UBE2T mainly affected the recurrence-free time of BC in subgroups. Conclusions: Univariate analysis and multivariate analysis certified that UBE2T was an independent indicator for BC prognosis. UBE2T is proven to be a good biomarker for predicting the responds of BC patients to aromatase inhibitor (AI).