Elevated levels of tumor apolipoprotein-D independently predict poor outcome in breast cancer patients.

Elevated levels of tumor apolipoprotein-D independently predict poor outcome in breast cancer patients.:

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Elevated levels of tumor apolipoprotein-D independently predict poor outcome in breast cancer patients.

Histopathology. 2020 Jan 28;:

Authors: Jankovic-Karasoulos T, Bianco-Miotto T, Butler MS, Butler LM, McNeil CM, O'Toole SA, Millar EKA, Sakko AJ, Ruiz AI, Birrell SN, Sutherland RL, Hickey TE, Tilley WD, Ricciardelli C

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Apolipoprotein D (ApoD) is an androgen and estrogen regulated protein and a major constituent of breast cysts. Although reported to be a marker of breast cancer, the prognostic importance of ApoD in invasive breast cancer is unclear.

AIM: To investigate the relationship between ApoD protein expression, together with estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) or androgen receptor (AR) expression, in predicting breast cancer outcome.

METHODS: ApoD levels were measured using immunohistochemistry and video image analysis (VIA) on tissue sections from a breast cancer cohort (n=214). We assessed the association of ApoD with disease-free survival (DFS), metastasis-free survival (MFS) and overall survival (OS). We further assessed the relationship between ApoD, AR and ERα in predicting OS.

RESULTS: ApoD expression (>1% ApoD positivity) was detected in 72% (154/214) of tissues. High ApoD positivity (≥20.7%, 4th quartile) was an independent predictor of MFS and OS, and conferred a 2.2-fold increased risk of developing metastatic disease and a 2.1-fold increased risk of breast cancer-related death. ApoD positivity was not associated with AR or ERα nuclear positivity. However, patients with ERα positive cancers with low (<20.7%) ApoD positivity, or those containing high (≥78%) AR and low (<20.7%) ApoD positivity had a better OS than other patient groups.

CONCLUSIONS: ApoD expression could be used to predict breast cancer prognosis independent of ERα and AR.

PMID: 31994214 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]