Tumor Suppressor Role for the c-Myb Oncogene in Luminal Breast Cancer

The transcription factor c-Myb has been well characterized as an oncogene in several human tumor types, and its expression in the hematopoietic stem/progenitor cell population is essential for proper hematopoiesis. However, the role of c-Myb in mammopoeisis and breast tumorigenesis is poorly understood, despite its high expression in the majority of breast cancer cases (60-80%). We find that c-Myb high expression in human breast tumors correlates with the luminal/ER+ phenotype and a good prognosis. RNAi knock-down of endogenous c-Myb levels in the MCF7 luminal breast tumor cell line increases tumorigenesis both in vitro and in vivo, suggesting a tumor suppressor role in luminal breast cancer. We created a mammary-derived c-Myb expression signature and found it to be highly correlated with a published mature luminal mammary cell signature and least correlated with a mammary stem/progenitor lineage gene signature. These data describe, for the first time, a tumor suppressor role for the c-Myb proto-oncogene in breast cancer that has implications for understanding luminal tumorigenesis and for guiding treatment. refXsample