Investigation of circulating antibodies to ANXA1 in breast cancer.

Our recent work demonstrated that circulating levels of IgG antibody to linear peptide antigens derived from annexin A1 (ANXA1) were significantly increased in lung cancer. The present study was then undertaken to test whether circulating anti-ANXA1 antibodies were also altered in breast cancer. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was developed in-house to determine circulating IgG against ANXA1-derived peptide antigens in 152 female patients with breast cancer and 160 female control subjects. Student's t test revealed that patients with breast cancer had significantly higher levels of anti-ANXA1 IgG than control subjects (t = 4.75, P < 0.0001). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis showed that the area under the ROC curve was 0.73 with 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.67-0.78, and the sensitivity of anti-ANXA1 IgG assay was 23.2% against the specificity of 90%. The levels of anti-ANXA1 IgG did not appear to be stage-dependent, and Pearson correlation analysis showed no correlation between the anti-ANXA1 IgG levels and the stages of breast cancer (r = -0.02, df = 149, P = 0.796). This work suggests that circulating IgG for ANXA1-derived peptide antigens may have both diagnostic and prognostic values for breast cancer although further screening is needed to identify more such peptide antigens derived from tumor-associated antigens.

Circulating antibodies to p16 protein-derived peptides in breast cancer.

Overexpression of the p16 protein has been reported in breast cancer and may trigger the secretion of antibodies against itself. Circulating anti-p16 antibodies that were detected with a recombinant protein have been reported in breast cancer. The present study was designed to determine whether the levels of circulating IgG antibody to p16 protein-derived linear antigens are altered in breast cancer. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed in-house to determine circulating IgG against peptide antigens derived from the p16 protein in 152 female breast cancer patients and 160 healthy female subjects. The Student's T-test revealed that breast cancer patients exhibited significantly higher levels of anti-p16 IgG antibody compared to control subjects (T=2.02, P=0.045). In addition, ductal cancer appeared to be the main type contributing to the increased levels of circulating anti-p16 antibodies (T=2.08, P=0.038). Of all four stages of breast cancer, stage I was associated with the highest levels of IgG antibody (T=2.02, P=0.045) and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis demonstrated that the area under the ROC curve was 0.74 (95% confidence interval: 0.65-083) and that the sensitivity against a specificity of 90% was 30.3%. Therefore, the levels of circulating IgG antibody to the p16 protein may be a potential biomarker for early diagnosis of breast cancer.