scholarly journals Alterations in Immune-Related Genes as Potential Marker of Prognosis in Breast Cancer

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bei Li ◽  
Rongxin Geng ◽  
Qi Wu ◽  
Qian Yang ◽  
Si Sun ◽  
...  
BMC Cancer ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lin Chen ◽  
Yuxiang Dong ◽  
Yitong Pan ◽  
Yuhan Zhang ◽  
Ping Liu ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Breast cancer is one of the main malignant tumors that threaten the lives of women, which has received more and more clinical attention worldwide. There are increasing evidences showing that the immune micro-environment of breast cancer (BC) seriously affects the clinical outcome. This study aims to explore the role of tumor immune genes in the prognosis of BC patients and construct an immune-related genes prognostic index. Methods The list of 2498 immune genes was obtained from ImmPort database. In addition, gene expression data and clinical characteristics data of BC patients were also obtained from the TCGA database. The prognostic correlation of the differential genes was analyzed through Survival package. Cox regression analysis was performed to analyze the prognostic effect of immune genes. According to the regression coefficients of prognostic immune genes in regression analysis, an immune risk scores model was established. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was performed to probe the biological correlation of immune gene scores. P < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results In total, 556 immune genes were differentially expressed between normal tissues and BC tissues (p < 0. 05). According to the univariate cox regression analysis, a total of 66 immune genes were statistically significant for survival risk, of which 30 were associated with overall survival (P < 0.05). Finally, a 15 immune genes risk scores model was established. All patients were divided into high- and low-groups. KM survival analysis revealed that high immune risk scores represented worse survival (p < 0.001). ROC curve indicated that the immune genes risk scores model had a good reliability in predicting prognosis (5-year OS, AUC = 0.752). The established risk model showed splendid AUC value in the validation dataset (3-year over survival (OS) AUC = 0.685, 5-year OS AUC = 0.717, P = 0.00048). Moreover, the immune risk signature was proved to be an independent prognostic factor for BC patients. Finally, it was found that 15 immune genes and risk scores had significant clinical correlations, and were involved in a variety of carcinogenic pathways. Conclusion In conclusion, our study provides a new perspective for the expression of immune genes in BC. The constructed model has potential value for the prognostic prediction of BC patients and may provide some references for the clinical precision immunotherapy of patients.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 4122
Author(s):  
Barbara Maria Piskór ◽  
Andrzej Przylipiak ◽  
Emilia Dąbrowska ◽  
Iwona Sidorkiewicz ◽  
Marek Niczyporuk ◽  
...  

Background: Stromelysins are potential breast cancer biomarkers. The aim of the study was to evaluate if plasma levels of selected metalloproteinases (MMPs) (stromelysin-1 (MMP-3) and stromelysin-10 (MMP-10)) and cancer antigen 15-3 (CA 15-3) used separately and in combination demonstrated diagnostic usefulness in breast cancer (BC). Methods: The study group consisted of 120 patients with BC, while the control group included 40 patients with benign breast cancer and 40 healthy individuals. Concentrations of MMP-3 and MMP-10 were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; CA 15-3 was determined by chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay. Results: In the group of patients with BC, the area under the curve (AUC) was significantly higher for all markers (except MMP-3) and all sets of markers. At the earliest disease stage, only MMP-10 had a significantly higher AUC (AUC = 0.8692, p < 0.001). Moreover, MMP-10 had the highest AUC (0.9166) among parameters tested separately. The highest AUC was observed for the combination of MMP-10 + CA 15-3 and MMP-3 + MMP-10 + CA 15-3 in line with disease progression (stage I 0.8884 and 0.8906, stage II 0.9244 and 0.9308, stages III + IV 0.9919 and 0.9944, respectively, p < 0.001 in all cases). Conclusions: The results suggest that MMP-10 could be a potential marker in early stages of BC. Moreover, plasma concentration of MMP-10 and MMP-3 in combination with CA 15-3 may improve diagnosis of this type of cancer.


2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. e12526-e12526
Author(s):  
Xiaying Kuang ◽  
Du Cai ◽  
Ying Lin ◽  
Feng Gao

e12526 Background: Luminal B breast cancer is always routinely treated with chemotherapy and endocrine therapy but heterogeneous with respect to sensitivity to treatment, identification of patients who may most benefit remains a matter of controversy. Immune-related genes (IRGs) was found to be associated with the prognosis of breast cancer. The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of IRGs in predicting the outcome of luminal B breast cancer patients. Methods: According to the Metabric microarray dataset also as a training cohort, 488 luminal B breast cancer patients were selected for generation of immune-related gene signature (IRGS). Another independent dataset (n=250) of patients with complete prognostic information was analyzed as a validation cohort. Prognostic analysis was assessed to test the predictive value of IRGS. Results: A model of prognostic IRGS containing 12 immune-related genes was developed. In both training and validation cohorts, IRGS significantly stratified luminal B breast cancer patients into immune low- and high-risk groups in terms of disease free survival (DFS, HR=4.95, 95% CI=3.22-7.62, P<0.001 in training cohort, HR=2.47, 95% CI=1.29-4.75, P<0.001 in validation cohort). Multivariate analysis revealed IRGS as an independent prognostic factor (HR=4.96, 95% CI=3.00-8.18, P<0.001 in training cohort, HR=2.56, 95% CI=1.28-5.09, P=0.007 in validation cohort). Furthermore, those 12 genes mostly related with response to chemical, and the expression levels of them were completely opposite in patients of immune low- and high-risk groups. Conclusions: The proposed IRGS is a satisfactory prognostic model for estimating DFS of luminal B breast cancer patients. Further studies are needed to assess the clinical effectiveness of this system in predicting prognosis and treatment options for luminal B breast cancer patients. This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81602520), Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (No. 2017A030313596).


2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1052-1052
Author(s):  
Kelvin K H Bao ◽  
Leone Sutanto ◽  
Shirley S W Tse ◽  
Ka Man Cheung ◽  
Jeffrey C H Chan

1052 Background: Markers for the efficacy of CDK4/6 inhibitor in estrogen receptor (ER) positive, HER2 negative advanced breast cancer are limited. The bidirectional crosstalks that exist between ER and HER2 pathways contribute to endocrine resistance. We investigated the association between low levels of HER2 expression and the clinical outcome of patients with ER+ HER2- metastatic breast cancer (MBC) treated with CDK4/6 inhibitors. Methods: We identified consecutive patients with ER+ HER2- MBC who received CDK4/6 inhibitor plus either letrozole or fulvestrant between Mar 2017 - Jun 2020 from an institutional cancer registry. HER2-low expression was defined as IHC score 1+, or 2+ with a negative ISH. Progression-free survival (PFS) was defined as the time from the initiation of CDK4/6 inhibitor to the date of radiological or clinical progression, or death. The relationship between HER2 expression levels and PFS was evaluated using log-rank test and multivariable Cox regression modelling. Results: 106 women with MBC were eligible for analysis. Median age at treatment was 58 (23.0-91.4). The majority received palbociclib (84%) while the rest received ribociclib. CDK4/6 inhibitor was used as first-line treatment in 50.9% of cases. Most tumors were of ductal histology (83%) and progesterone receptor (PgR) positive (84.9%), and 22.6% of the patients had bone-only disease. 77.3% of cases were considered HER2-low expressing. HER2-low expression was associated with a significantly shorter PFS compared with HER2 IHC 0 counterpart (median, 8.9 vs 18.8 months, p= 0.014). In multivariate analysis, HER-2 low expression remained significantly associated with an inferior PFS (HR 1.96, 95%CI 1.03-3.75, p= 0.041) after adjusting for the line of treatment, PgR status and disease extent (bone only vs extra-osseous disease). Conclusions: In patients with ER+ HER2- MBC treated with CDK4/6 inhibitors, HER2-low expression was associated with an inferior PFS, and may serve as a potential marker candidate for CDK4/6 inhibitor efficacy. As novel anti-HER2 antibody-drug conjugates demonstrated efficacy in HER2-low expressing MBC, coupled with the emerging evidence for the combination of CDK4/6 inhibitors with anti-HER2 agents, this HER2-low expression subgroup warrants prospective evaluations in future trials.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Yan ◽  
Qiang Song ◽  
Li Yao ◽  
Liang Zhao ◽  
Hui Cai

Abstract Background:The YAP signaling pathway is altered and implicated as oncogenic in human mammary cancers.However, roles of YAP signaling that regulate the breast tumor angiogenesis have remained elusive. Tumor angiogenesis is coordinated by the activation of both cancer cells and vascular endothelial cells. Whether the YAP signalingpathway can regulate the intercellular interaction between cancer cells and endothelial cellsis essentially unknown.Results: We showed here that conditioned media from YAP overexpressed breast cancer cells (CM-YAP+) could promote angiogenesis, accompanied byincreased tube formation, migration, and proliferation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Down regulation of YAP in HUVECs reversed CM-YAP+ induced angiogenesis.CM-YAP+ time-dependently activated YAP inHUVECs by dephosphorylating YAP and increasing nuclear translocation.We also identified that both G13-RhoA and PI3K/Akt signaling pathway were necessary for CM-YAP+ induced activation of YAP.Besides, connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) and angiopoietin-2 (ANG-2)actedas down-stream of YAP in HUVECs to promote angiogenesis.In addition, subcutaneous tumors nude mice model demonstrated that tumors overexpressed YAP revealed moreneovascularization in vivo.Conclusions: YAP-YAP interaction between breastcancer cells and endothelial cellscould promote tumor angiogenesis, supporting that YAP is a potential marker and target fordeveloping novel therapeutic strategies against breast cancer.


2020 ◽  
pp. 767-779
Author(s):  
Tess O’Meara ◽  
Michal Marczyk ◽  
Tao Qing ◽  
Vesal Yaghoobi ◽  
Kim Blenman ◽  
...  

PURPOSE A subset of estrogen receptor–positive (ER-positive) breast cancer (BC) contains high levels of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), similar to triple-negative BC (TNBC). The majority of immuno-oncology trials target TNBCs because of the greater proportion of TIL-rich TNBCs. The extent to which the immune microenvironments of immune-rich ER-positive BC and TNBC differ is unknown. PATIENTS AND METHODS RNA sequencing data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA; n = 697 ER-positive BCs; n = 191 TNBCs) were used for discovery; microarray expression data from Molecular Taxonomy of Breast Cancer International Consortium (METABRIC; n = 1,186 ER-positive BCs; n = 297 TNBCs) was used for validation. Patients in the top 25th percentile of a previously published total TIL metagene score distribution were considered immune rich. We compared expression of immune cell markers, immune function metagenes, and immuno-oncology therapeutic targets among immune-rich subtypes. RESULTS Relative fractions of resting mast cells (TCGA Padj = .009; METABRIC Padj = 4.09E-15), CD8+ T cells (TCGA Padj = .015; METABRIC Padj = 0.390), and M2-like macrophages (TCGA Padj= 4.68E-05; METABRIC Padj = .435) were higher in immune-rich ER-positive BCs, but M0-like macrophages (TCGA Padj = 0.015; METABRIC Padj = .004) and M1-like macrophages (TCGA Padj = 9.39E-08; METABRIC Padj = 6.24E-11) were higher in immune-rich TNBCs. Ninety-one immune-related genes (eg, CXCL14, CSF3R, TGF-B3, LRRC32/GARP, TGFB-R2) and a transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) response metagene were significantly overexpressed in immune-rich ER-positive BCs, whereas 41 immune-related genes (eg, IFNG, PD-L1, CTLA4, MAGEA4) were overexpressed in immune-rich TNBCs in both discovery and validation data sets. TGF-β pathway member genes correlated negatively with expression of immune activation markers ( IFNG, granzyme-B, perforin) and positively with M2-like macrophages ( IL4, IL10, and MMP9) and regulatory T-cell ( FOXP3) markers in both subtypes. CONCLUSION Different immunotherapy strategies may be optimal in immune-rich ER-positive BC and TNBC. Drugs targeting the TGF-β pathway and M2-like macrophages are promising strategies in immune-rich ER-positive BCs to augment antitumor immunity.


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