Figure 2.

Reduced Fau transcript levels in breast cancer are associated with poor patient survival. (a) RNA was isolated from tumour tissue and adjacent normal tissue (n = 21 patients), was reverse transcribed, and Fau and ALAS1 transcript levels were determined using Taqman assays and real-time PCR using a relative standard curve protocol (cDNA from T-47D cells as standard). The Fau/ALAS1 transcript ratio is reduced in tumour tissue. *P = 0.002; paired Student's t test. Inset: scattergram of data. (b) Fau transcript levels are also reduced in tumour tissue (closed bars) versus normal tissue (open bars) in subsets of patients with grade II and grade III disease. *P < 0.05; n = 7 and **P < 0.001; n = 12; one-way analysis of variance with Bonferroni's multiple comparison test. (c) Kaplan–Meier survival curve showing reduced overall breast-cancer-specific survival in invasive breast cancer with lower Fau expression levels (P = 0.006).