Overexpression of CXCR4 in Primary Tumor of Patients with HER-2 Negative Breast Cancer was Predictive of a Poor Disease-Free Survival: A Validation Study

• Published in: Annals of surgical oncology 2009-10, Vol.16 (10), p.2711-2716
• Main Authors: Mizell, Jason, Smith, Mark, Li, Benjamin D. L., Ampil, Fred, Chu, Quyen D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Biomarkers, Tumor - metabolism; Breast Neoplasms - metabolism; Breast Neoplasms - pathology; Breast Oncology; Cohort Studies; Female; HeLa Cells; Humans; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Middle Aged; Neoplasm Invasiveness; Neoplasm Recurrence, Local - etiology; Neoplasm Recurrence, Local - metabolism; Neoplasm Recurrence, Local - pathology; Neoplasm Staging; Oncology; Prognosis; Prospective Studies; Receptor, ErbB-2 - metabolism; Receptors, CXCR4 - metabolism; Receptors, Estrogen - metabolism; Receptors, Progesterone - metabolism; Surgery; Surgical Oncology; Survival Rate
• ISSN: 1068-9265; 1534-4681
• DOI: 10.1245/s10434-009-0551-0

Background Although HER-2 negative tumors are thought to be less aggressive than their counterpart, there is a subset that behaves poorly. The molecular mechanism to account for this is unknown. The chemokine receptor CXCR4 is often upregulated in a wide array of cancers. Using a training dataset, we previously reported that high CXCR4 overexpression portends a poor outcome among patients with HER-2 negative breast tumors. This study aims to validate these findings, using our validation dataset. Methods There were 115 patients with stages I–III, HER-2 negative breast cancers who were prospectively accrued and analyzed. CXCR4 levels from primary tumors were detected using Western blots, and results were quantified against 1 μg of HeLa cells. CXCR4 expression was defined as low (