Low TINAGL1 expression is a marker for poor prognosis in breast cancer.

PURPOSE: Tubulointerstitial nephritis antigen-like 1 (TINAGL1) was reported to suppress tumor metastasis and growth in triple-negative (TN) breast cancer. We aimed to determine the associations of TINAGL1 expression with clinicopathological factors and prognosis in breast cancer patients with long-term follow-up. METHODS: A total of 599 consecutive primary invasive breast cancer patients with available tissue specimens from surgery in our hospital were included in the study. TINAGL1 mRNA expression was examined in all 599 tissue specimens using a TaqMan real-time PCR system. TINAGL1 protein expression was further examined in 299 patients with available tissue specimens for immunohistochemical staining. Survival analyses were performed using the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional hazards models. RESULTS: The median follow-up period was 12.0 years. In the total patients, low TINAGL1 mRNA expression was associated with significantly shorter disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival than high expression (P = 0.003 and P = 0.01, respectively). Furthermore, hormone receptor-positive/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative breast cancer patients with low TINAGL1 mRNA expression had a worse prognosis. Multivariate analysis identified low TINAGL1 mRNA expression, combined with lymph node positivity, as an independent poor prognostic factor for DFS in invasive breast cancer patients (HR 1.41; 95% CI 1.02-1.96; P = 0.036). TINAGL1 mRNA expression also varied with menopausal status, with low TINAGL1 mRNA expression being positively associated with poor prognosis in premenopausal patients, but not in postmenopausal patients. CONCLUSION: Our findings demonstrate that TINAGL1 may be a promising candidate biomarker and therapeutic target in breast cancer patients.

Co-expression effect of LLGL2 and SLC7A5 to predict prognosis in ERα-positive breast cancer.

Lethal giant larvae homolog 2 (LLGL2) and solute carrier family 7 member 5 (SLC7A5) have been reported to be involved in resistance to endocrine therapy. This study aimed to assess the effects of LLGL2/SLC7A5 co-expression in predicting prognosis and response to tamoxifen therapy in ERα-positive breast cancer patients according to LLGL2/SLC7A5 mRNA and protein expression in long-term follow-up invasive breast cancer tissues. We identified that low LLGL2/SLC7A5 mRNA co-expression (LLGL2low/SLC7A5low) was associated with disease-free survival (DFS) compared with other combination groups in all breast cancer patients. In ERα-positive breast cancer patients, LLGL2low/SLC7A5low showed longer DFS and overall survival (OS) compared with LLGL2high/SLC7A5high and a positive trend of longer survival compared with the other combination groups. We also observed that LLGL2low/SLC7A5low showed longer survival compared with LLGL2high/SLC7A5high in ERα-positive breast cancer patients receiving adjuvant tamoxifen therapy. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that LLGL2low/SLC7A5low was an independent favorable prognostic factor of both DFS and OS, not only in all breast cancer patients, but also in ERα-positive breast cancer patients. High co-expression of LLGL2 and SLC7A5 protein showed a positive trend of shorter survival. Our study showed that co-expression of LLGL2 and SLC7A5 mRNA is a promising candidate biomarker in early breast cancer patients.

Efficacy and impact of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination on cancer treatment for breast cancer patients: a multi-center prospective observational study.

PURPOSE: Vaccination is an essential strategy to prevent infection in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. However, there are concerns about vaccine efficacy and the impact of vaccination on cancer treatment. Additionally, the emergence of novel variants may affect vaccination efficacy. This multi-center, prospective, observational study investigated the efficacy and impact of vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 variants on treatment among breast cancer patients in Japan. METHODS: Patients with breast cancer scheduled to be vaccinated with the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine from May to November 2021 were prospectively enrolled (UMIN000045527). They were stratified into five groups according to their cancer treatment: no treatment, hormone therapy, anti-human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER)2 therapy, chemotherapy, and cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 (CDK4/6) inhibitor. Serum samples for assessing serological responses were collected before the first vaccination and after the second vaccination. RESULTS: Eighty-five breast cancer patients were included. The overall seroconversion rate after second vaccination was 95.3% and the lowest seroconversion rate was 81.8% in the patients under chemotherapy. The overall positivity rate of neutralizing antibodies against the wild-type, α, Δ, κ, and omicron variants were 90.2%, 81.7%, 96.3%, 84.1%, and 8.5%, respectively. Among the patients under chemotherapy or CDK4/6 inhibitors, various degrees of decreased neutralizing antibody titers against SARS-CoV-2 variants were observed. Withdrawal or reduction of systemic therapy because of vaccination was observed in only one patient. CONCLUSION: Our data support SARS-CoV-2 vaccination for breast cancer patients. However, a reduction in neutralizing antibody titers was suggested during chemotherapy and CDK4/6 inhibitors, raising concerns about the impact on long-term infection prevention.

Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor-associated aortitis in a woman with breast cancer: a case report.

BACKGROUND: Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) is increasingly used to prevent chemotherapy-associated febrile neutropenia. Generally, aortitis is not considered a side effect of G-CSF and is thought to be extremely rare. Aortitis is an inflammation of the aorta and occurs mainly in connective tissue diseases (Takayasu arteritis, giant cell arteritis, etc.) and infectious diseases (bacterial endocarditis, syphilis, etc.). We report herein a rare case of G-CSF associated with aortitis in a woman with breast cancer. CASE PRESENTATION: Here, we present a case involving a 63-year-old woman with luminal type stage IIa breast cancer. The patient's treatment was initiated with docetaxel and cyclophosphamide, with pegfilgrastim (PEG-G) as support. After PEG-G administration on day 3, the patient developed an intermittent fever of up to 39.4 °C on day 10 and visited our outpatient clinic on day 13 with persistent high fever. Laboratory tests revealed a high neutrophil count (14,000/µL) and a high C-reactive protein (CRP) level (42.8 mg/dL) without any other abnormalities. Contrast-enhanced computed tomography scanning revealed soft tissue thickening with weak enhancement around the wall of the thoraco-abdominal aorta, aortic arch and left subclavian artery. The patient did not respond to antimicrobial agents. On the basis of these observations, the patient was diagnosed with PEG-G-induced aortitis, and her condition rapidly improved without corticosteroids. CONCLUSIONS: Clinicians should be aware of aortitis as a potential complication in patients undergoing G-CSF chemotherapy. In cases with persistent high fever after PEG-G administration, and in the absence of infection, aortitis should be suspected.

Low HECTD1 mRNA expression is associated with poor prognosis and may be correlated with increased mitochondrial respiratory function in breast cancer.

HECT domain E3 ubiquitin ligase 1 (HECTD1) has been reported to be a negative regulator of epithelial-mesenchymal transition and to decrease breast cancer invasion and metastasis. However, the clinical significance and detailed role of HECTD1 in breast cancer remain elusive. We investigated the role of HECTD1 in two large breast cancer cohorts at our institution and The Cancer Genome Atlas using mRNA expression and bioinformatics analysis. We also examined the prognostic significance of HECTD1 mRNA expression by multivariate analysis and HECTD1 protein expression by immunohistochemistry using our cohort. HECTD1 mRNA expression was significantly lower in breast cancer tissues compared with those in adjacent normal tissues (P<0.001). HECTD1 mRNA expression levels also differed among breast cancer subtypes. Decreased HECTD1 mRNA expression was significantly associated with aggressive tumor characteristics, including large tumor size and high histological grade. HECTD1 mRNA expression was inversely associated with mitochondrial cellular respiratory function (oxidative phosphorylation (P<0.001, FDR q-value <0.001) the respiratory chain complex (P<0.001, FDR q-value <0.001) and reactive oxygen species (P<0.001, FDR q-value <0.001), but not with epithelial-mesenchymal transition, in breast cancer tissues. Low expression of HECTD1 mRNA was associated with shorter disease-free survival (log-rank: P=0.013) and overall survival (log-rank: P=0.038) in breast cancer patients. Multivariate analysis also identified low HECTD1 mRNA expression level as an independent risk factor for disease-free (hazard ratio: 1.54, 95% confidence interval: 1.11-2.13, P=0.009) and overall (hazard ratio: 1.50, 95% confidence interval: 1.01-2.24, P=0.046) survival among breast cancer patients. There was no association of HECTD1 protein expression with HECTD1 mRNA expression and prognosis. In conclusion, we identified low expression of HECTD1 mRNA as an independent poor prognostic factor in breast cancer and showed that HECTD1 mRNA expression was inversely correlated with genes involved in mitochondrial cellular respiratory function in breast cancer.

Discovering novel mechanisms of taxane resistance in human breast cancer by whole-exome sequencing.

Taxanes are important drugs used in the treatment of breast cancer; however, some cancer types are taxane-resistant. The aim of the present study was to investigate the underlying mechanisms of taxane resistance using whole-exome sequencing (WES). Six patients with breast cancer whose tumors responded well to anthracycline treatment but grew rapidly during neoadjuvant taxane-based chemotherapy, were included in the present study. WES of samples from these patients was carried out to identify somatic mutations of candidate genes thought to affect taxane resistance, and the candidate proteins were structurally modeled. The mRNA and protein expression levels of these candidate genes in other breast cancers treated with taxanes were also examined. Nine variants common to all six patients were identified and two of these [R552P in V-type proton ATPase catalytic subunit A (ATP6V1A) and T114P in apolipoprotein B MRNA editing enzyme catalytic subunit 3F (APOBEC3F)] were selected. The results also showed that, protein-structure visualization suggested that these mutations may cause structural changes. The Kaplan-Meier analyses revealed that higher APT6V1A and APOBEC3F expression levels were significantly associated with poorer disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival. Moreover, multivariate analysis identified high ATP6V1A mRNA expression as an independent risk factor for poor DFS. Two specific mutations that might affect taxane resistance were identified. Thus, these results suggest that breast cancer patients receiving taxanes who have high ATP6V1A or APOBEC3F expression levels may have shorter survival.

Predictive factors for patients who need treatment for chronic post-surgical pain (CPSP) after breast cancer surgery.

BACKGROUND: Although chronic postsurgical pain (CPSP) after breast cancer surgery is a common and prevalent postsurgical adverse event, the need for CPSP treatment has not been investigated. This study examined the proportion of patients who needed treatment for CPSP and associated predictors. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study with female patients who underwent breast cancer surgery at our institution. Participants were aged ≤ 65 years at the time of this study and were at least 1 year post surgery. The questionnaire examined the presence of and need for treatment for CPSP and included the Japanese version of the Concerns about Recurrence Scale (CARS-J). Multivariate analyses were used to identify independent predictors of needing treatment for CPSP. RESULTS: In total, 305 patients completed the questionnaire. The mean time since surgery was 67.1 months; 156 (51%) patients developed CPSP after breast cancer surgery and 61 (39%) needed treatment for CPSP. Among patients that developed CPSP, the fear of breast cancer recurrence as assessed by the CARS-J (odds ratio [OR] 2.59, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.14-6.28, P = 0.028) and ≥ 2 postsurgical pain regions (OR 2.52, 95% CI 1.16-5.57, P = 0.020) were independent predictors of needing treatment for CPSP. CONCLUSIONS: This study is the first to identify the proportion and predictors of patients who need treatment for CPSP. Fear of breast cancer recurrence and ≥ 2 postsurgical pain regions may predict the need for CPSP treatment among patients following breast cancer surgery.

Low RAI2 expression is a marker of poor prognosis in breast cancer.

PURPOSE: Retinoic acid-induced 2 (RAI2) has been shown to be a putative suppressor of the early hematogenous dissemination of tumor cells to the bone marrow in breast cancer. Here, we investigated the associations of RAI2 mRNA and protein expression with clinicopathological factors and prognosis in breast cancer patients with long-term follow-up. METHODS: Invasive breast cancer tissues (n = 604) were analyzed for RAI2 mRNA expression. We examined the associations of clinicopathological factors with the expression levels of RAI2 mRNA in these samples. We also analyzed RAI2 protein expression by immunohistochemistry in invasive breast cancer tissues (n = 422). RESULTS: We identified significant positive associations between low expression of RAI2 mRNA and shorter disease-free survival (DFS), breast-cancer-specific survival (BCSS), and overall survival (OS) in breast cancer patients. We also identified significant positive associations between negative for RAI2 protein expression and shorter DFS, BCSS, and OS in breast cancer patients. Low RAI2 mRNA and negative for RAI2 protein expression were positively associated with larger tumor size, higher tumor grade, and ERα-negativity. Multivariate analyses indicated that not only RAI2 mRNA but also RAI2 protein expression were independent risk factors for both DFS and BCSS in breast cancer patients. The median follow-up periods were 10.3 and 9.3 years for the RAI2 mRNA and protein expression analyses, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that RAI2 has a role in the metastasis of breast cancer, and that RAI2 expression could be a promising candidate biomarker of prognosis in breast cancer patients.

Sentinel lymph node biopsy may be unnecessary for ductal carcinoma in situ of the breast that is small and diagnosed by preoperative biopsy.

BACKGROUND: Current guidelines do not recommend that sentinel lymph node biopsy is routinely performed for ductal carcinoma in situ; thus, indications for sentinel lymph node biopsy in patients with ductal carcinoma in situ remain controversial. In this study, we investigated whether sentinel lymph node biopsy can be safely omitted when ductal carcinoma in situ has been diagnosed by preoperative biopsy. METHODS: We retrospectively analysed sentinel lymph node metastasis rates and upstaging to invasive cancer in surgical specimens, performed receiver operating characteristic analysis for ductal carcinoma in situ lesion size and assessed correlations with preoperative clinicopathological factors of 277 patients with ductal carcinoma in situ diagnosed by preoperative biopsy at our institution. RESULTS: Among 277 patients with sentinel lymph node biopsy, six (2.2%) had sentinel lymph node metastasis. All six were upstaged to invasive cancer by pathological examination of surgical specimens. In total, 69 patients (24.9%) were upstaged to invasive cancer. The mean size of ductal carcinoma in situ lesions on preoperative imaging was significantly larger for the 69 upstaged patients (50.0 mm) than for the non-upstaged patients (34.4 mm; P < 0.0001). Of the 277 patients with sentinel lymph node biopsy, 117 (42.2%) had preoperative ductal carcinoma in situ lesions <31.8 mm, which was identified as the optimal cut-off size by receiver operating characteristic analysis. Of these 117 patients, 96 (82.1%, 95% confidence interval: 73.9-88.5%) could be safely omitted from sentinel lymph node biopsy because all of them remained as ductal carcinoma in situ and had negative sentinel lymph nodes at surgery. CONCLUSIONS: Size of ductal carcinoma in situ lesions on preoperative diagnostic imaging is a predictor of diagnosis of invasive cancer on pathological examination of surgical specimens. Sentinel lymph node biopsy may be unnecessary in ductal carcinoma in situ diagnosed by preoperative biopsy in patients with small lesions.

Development of an ENPP1 Fluorescence Probe for Inhibitor Screening, Cellular Imaging, and Prognostic Assessment of Malignant Breast Cancer.

Ectonucleotide pyrophosphatase/phosphodiesterase 1 (ENPP1) is a type II transmembrane glycoprotein that is involved in bone metabolism and insulin resistance, hydrolyzes 2',3'-cGAMP (a STING ligand that promotes innate immunity), and is associated with cancer stemness in breast cancers and glioblastoma. Therefore, ENPP1 is considered a candidate therapeutic target and/or biomarker for early diagnosis of malignant tumors. In this study, we designed and synthesized a sensitive ENPP1 fluorescence probe, Tokyo Green (TG) mAMP. We used it to screen a chemical library for non-phosphate ENPP1 inhibitors. Structural optimization of a selected hit afforded a potent and specific ENPP1 inhibitor. We further found that ENPP1 mRNA expression in tissue samples from patients with triple-negative breast cancer was significantly inversely related to recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS), and TG-mAMP assay revealed a significant difference in ENPP1 activity between ENPP1 high-expressing and ENPP1 low-expressing samples. Our results suggest that TG-mAMP assay might be a rapid and inexpensive tool for predicting the prognosis of patients with malignant breast cancers.

Prognostic impact of TP53INP1 gene expression in estrogen receptor α-positive breast cancer patients.

BACKGROUND: Tumor protein 53-induced nuclear protein 1 (TP53INP1) is a key stress protein with tumor suppressor function. Several studies have demonstrated TP53INP1 downregulation in many cancers. In this study, we investigated the correlations of TP53INP1 mRNA expression in breast cancer tissues with prognosis and the correlations of microRNAs that regulate TP53INP1 expression in breast cancer patients with long follow-up. METHODS: A total of 453 invasive breast cancer tissues were analyzed for TP53INP1 mRNA expression. We examined correlations of clinicopathological factors and expression levels of TP53INP1 mRNA in these samples. The expressions of miR-155, miR-569 and markers associated with tumor-initiating capacity were also analyzed. The median follow-up period was 9.0 years. RESULTS: We found positive correlations between low expression of TP53INP1 mRNA and shorter disease-free survival and overall survival in breast cancer patients (P = 0.0002 and P < 0.0001, respectively), as well as in estrogen receptor α (ERα)-positive patients receiving adjuvant endocrine therapy (P = 0.01 and P = 0.0008, respectively). No correlations were found in ERα-negative patients. Low TP53INP1 mRNA levels positively correlated with higher grade and ERα-negativity. Multivariate analysis indicated that TP53INP1 mRNA level was an independent risk factor for overall survival both in overall breast cancer patients (hazard ratio, 2.13; 95% confidence interval, 1.17-3.92) and ERα-positive patients (hazard ratio, 2.34; 95% confidence interval, 1.18-4.64). CONCLUSIONS: We show that low expression of TP53INP1 is an independent factor of poor prognosis in breast cancer patients, especially ERα-positive patients. TP53INP1 might be a promising candidate biomarker and therapeutic target in ERα-positive breast cancer patients.

Effects of serum estradiol and progesterone on estrogen-regulated gene expression in breast cancers of premenopausal patients.

BACKGROUND: Expression of estrogen receptor α in breast cancer is essential for estrogen-dependent growth and partially determines the breast cancer subtype. In premenopausal women, expression of estrogen-regulated genes in estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer tissues are reportedly influenced by the menstrual cycle. METHODS: We investigated correlations between serum estradiol (E2; tested on the day of surgery) and expression of estrogen-regulated genes and proliferation genes in strongly estrogen receptor α-positive breast cancer tissues from 91 premenopausal women by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. We also investigated correlations between serum progesterone levels on the day of surgery and mRNA expression of progesterone-regulated genes and proliferation genes. RESULTS: The serum E2 level affected expression of estrogen-regulated genes, including progesterone receptor (P = 0.016, Rs = 0.07) but showed no correlation with expression of genes associated with proliferation. We also observed strong positive correlations between mRNA expression of ESR1 and that of estrogen-regulated genes (P < 0.0001, Rs = 0.329-0.756) and proliferation genes (P < 0.0001, Rs = 0.753-0.843). The serum progesterone level affected expression of RANKL mRNA. However, we observed no correlations between serum progesterone and expression of Wnt-4 or proliferation genes. CONCLUSIONS: The serum E2 level on the day of surgery influences estrogen-regulated gene expression moderately in patients found to be strongly positive for estrogen receptor α by immunohistochemistry. Changes in serum E2 levels might influence the results of molecular profiling tests in premenopausal women with breast cancer.

Impact of intraoperative specimen mammography on margins in breast-conserving surgery.

A positive resection margin is one of the most significant risk factors for local breast cancer recurrence following breast-conserving surgery (BCS). Intraoperative specimen mammography (SMMG) is routinely used to evaluate the surgical margin at our institution. The aim of the present study was to assess the adequacy of SMMG for margin assessment. The patient cohort included 174 women who underwent BCS in 2006. The sensitivity and specificity of SMMG were assessed by comparing the margins assessed by histological and radiological methods. It was also examined whether the rate of positive histological margins was decreased by re-excision following SMMG evaluation. A total of 23 false-negatives and 6 false-positives were determined by SMMG. The sensitivity and specificity of SMMG margin assessment for patients with primary breast cancer were 20.6 and 94.6%, respectively. The positive predictive value was 50% and the negative predictive value was 82.2%. A subgroup analysis revealed that the sensitivity and specificity of SMMG in cases with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) were higher compared with those in invasive ductal carcinoma. Furthermore, the positive histological margin rate was not affected by re-excision. Although the general usefulness of intraoperative SMMG was not proven, this procedure may be useful in specific cases, particularly those with DCIS and those diagnosed by stereotactic biopsy. A prospective study with exact criteria and a standard procedure is required.

Comparison of clinical outcomes between luminal invasive ductal carcinoma and luminal invasive lobular carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: The pathological and clinical features of invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) differ from those of invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC). Several studies have indicated that patients with ILC have a better prognosis than those with ductal carcinoma. However, no previous study has considered the molecular subtypes and histological subtypes of ILC. We compared prognosis between IDC and classical, luminal type ILC and developed prognostic factors for early breast cancer patients with classical luminal ILC. METHODS: Four thousand one hundred ten breast cancer patients were treated at the Aichi Cancer Center Hospital from 2003 to 2012. We identified 1,661 cases with luminal IDC and 105 cases with luminal classical ILC. We examined baseline characteristics, clinical outcomes, and prognostic factors of luminal ILC. RESULTS: The prognosis of luminal ILC was significantly worse than that of luminal IDC. The rates of 5-year disease free survival (DFS) were 91.9% and 88.4% for patients with luminal IDC and luminal ILC, respectively (P = 0.008). The rates of 5-year overall survival (OS) were 97.6% and 93.1% for patients with luminal IDC and luminal ILC respectively (P = 0.030). Although we analyzed prognosis according to stratification by tumor size, luminal ILC tended to have worse DFS than luminal IDC in the large tumor group. In addition, although our analysis was performed according to matching lymph node status, luminal ILC had a significantly worse DFS and OS than luminal IDC in node-positive patients. Survival curves showed that the prognosis for ILC became worse than IDC over time. Multivariate analysis showed that ILC was an important factor related to higher risk of recurrence of luminal type breast cancer, even when tumor size, lymph node status and histological grade were considered. CONCLUSIONS: Luminal ILC had worse outcomes than luminal IDC. Consequently, different treatment approaches should be used for luminal ILC than for luminal IDC.

Sentinel lymph node biopsy is not necessary in patients diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ of the breast by stereotactic vacuum-assisted biopsy.

BACKGROUND: This study evaluated the role and need of a sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) in patients with an initial diagnosis of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) made by stereotactic vacuum-assisted biopsy (VAB). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective analysis was performed of 1,458 patients who underwent stereotactic VAB between January 1999 and December 2012 at Aichi Cancer Center Hospital. The rates of axillary node metastasis and the underestimation of invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) were examined. RESULTS: Of the 1,458 patients who underwent stereotactic VAB, 199 had a preoperative diagnosis of DCIS and underwent surgery. In these patients, 20 % (39/199) were upstaged to IDC or at least microinvasion in final pathology. Axillary lymph node status was investigated in 81 % (161/199) of initially diagnosed DCIS patients, and resulted in finding lymph node metastasis in 0.62 % (1/161) patients. To assess the potential preoperative predictors of invasiveness, the value of DCIS histological grade on biopsy samples, the distribution of calcifications on mammograms, and the combination of these factors were studied. The underestimation rate was higher (30 %) in the combination of high DCIS histological grade and extensive calcification although there was no significant association (p = 0.23). CONCLUSION: The rate of lymph node metastasis was extremely low (0.62 %), even when invasive carcinoma was identified on excision in patients initially diagnosed with DCIS by stereotactic VAB. Because of the low prevalence of metastatic involvement, the cessation of SLNB is a reasonable consideration in patients initially diagnosed with DCIS by stereotactic VAB.