DNER is differentially expressed in central nervous system metastasis.

Metastasis to the brain occurs in a significant fraction of patients with solid tumors including breast cancer and metastatic melanoma (1-3). We mined published RNA-sequencing and microarray data (4, 5), comparing primary and brain metastatic tumor transcriptomes for the discovery of genes associated with metastasis to the CNS. We found that delta/notch-like EGF repeat-containing, encoded by DNER, was among the genes whose expression was most different in the brain metastases of patients with metastatic breast cancer as compared to primary tumors of the breast. Study of microarray data (5) revealed conserved differential expression of DNER in CNS metastasis in patients with metastatic melanoma. DNER mRNA was present at increased quantities in metastasis to the brain in humans with breast cancer. Expression of DNER in primary tumors of the breast was correlated with patient overall and distant metastasis-free survival. Modulation of DNER expression may be relevant to the biology by which tumor cells metastasize to the brain in humans with solid tumors with propensity for the CNS including breast cancer and metastatic melanoma.