ONCOmmunity

HE4 Expression Can Be Associated with Lymph Node Metastases and Disease-free Survival in Breast Cancer

By: Kamei M, Yamashita S, Tokuishi K, Hashioto T, Moroga T, Suehiro S, Ono K, Miyawaki M, Takeno S, Yamamoto S, Kawahara K.

Department of Surgery II, Faculty of Medicine, Oita University, 1-1 Idaigaoka, Hasama, Yufu, Oita, 879-5593, Japan. yamashi1@med.oita-u.ac.jp.
Anticancer Res. 2010 Nov; 30(11):4779-83.

Abstract

Background

This study investigated the potential of HE4 to predict disease-free survival for patients with breast cancer.

Patients and methods

One hundred and twenty-nine patients with breast cancer underwent surgery from January 2004 to September 2009. Immunohistochemical analysis (IHC) and RT-PCR were used to determine the expression of HE4 which was compared with the clinicopathological factors or prognosis.

Results

A total of 71 of 129 cases (55%) were HE4 positive and two cell lines expressed HE4 protein and mRNA. No correlation was found between HE4 expression by IHC and clinicopathological factors; however, lymph node involvement was closely associated with HE4 expression. Five-year disease-free survival in the HE4-positive group (58.6%) was significantly worse than that in the negative group (85.6%, p=0.04).

Conclusion

These data showed that HE4 expression is associated with lymph node involvement and is a possible predictive factor of breast cancer recurrence.

PMID: 21115941 [PubMed - in process] Source: National Library of Medicine.