Prognostic significance of the expression of SR-A1, encoding a novel SR-related CTD-associated factor, in breast cancer.

SR-A1 is a human high-molecular-weight SR-related CTD-associated factor that links the machineries of transcription and mRNA splicing. In this study we examined the prognostic value of SR-A1 gene expression using a semi-quantitative RT-PCR method. High SR-A1 expression was observed in 31/81 (38.3%) breast cancer tissues and was found to be more frequent in patients with tumors of large size (p=0.027), as well as in lymph node-positive patients (p=0.035). Follow-up analysis revealed that low SR-A1 expression increases the probability of both overall and disease-free survival of patients. Our results suggest that SR-A1 may possibly be characterized as a new marker of unfavorable prognosis for breast cancer.