title: Predictive value of c-erbB-2 and cathepsin-D for Greek breast cancer patients using univariate and multivariate analysis.
abstract: The value of various prognostic factors in breast cancer patients has been determined in a number of studies. One hundred thirty-eight Greek women were followed up over a 5-year period after surgery for breast cancer. Amplification and overexpression of c-erbB-2 was found in 22.4% and 29.7% of the respective cases, and the concentration of total cytosolic Cathepsin-D (CD) in 46.4% of them was high (> or = 60 pmol/mg protein). The examined biological variables were compared with standard clinicopathological prognostic factors for the disease and related to early relapse (ER; before 3 years), relapse-free survival (RFS; median, 5 years), and overall survival (OS; median, 5 years). It was found that high CD levels significantly shorten ER of both node-negative and node-positive patients (P < 0.0001 and P = 0.002, respectively) and have prognostic value for RFS and OS of node-negative patients (P = 0.0012 and P = 0.0288, respectively), but lose their value as relapse predictors for node-positive patients for periods longer than 3 years. Overexpression of c-erbB-2 was found to be predictive for OS of node-positive and -negative patients (P = 0.0048 and P = 0.0285, respectively), but its predictive power was weak for ER (P = 0.0456) and RFS (P = 0.0455) of node-negative patients and disappeared for node-positive patients. c-erbB-2 amplification offers minimal assistance to the prediction. In conclusion, high CD concentration is indicative of ER of patients, and c-erbB-2 overexpression correlates with OS of patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Virology, G. Papanikolaou Research Center of Oncology, St. Savas Hospital, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Scorilas
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yotis
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pateras
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Trangas
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Talieri
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000201:enzymology / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality; D002402:Cathepsin D / Q000378:metabolism*; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D005784:Gene Amplification; D006115:Greece; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis / Q000175:diagnosis; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D015996:Survival Rate
chemical_list: D002402:Cathepsin D; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases