Serum bFGF (basic fibroblast growth factor) and CA 15.3 in the monitoring of breast cancer patients.
BACKGROUND
Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) is a potent angiogenetic factor which may influence breast cancer evolution.


METHODS
Serum bFGF, (cut-off 10 pg/ml), was assayed in 166 breast cancer patients at all stages and compared with CA 15.3.


RESULTS
In 99 pre-treatment (PT) sera, 39/99 (39.4%) were bFGF positive, 9/99 (9.1%) CA 15.3 positive (> 30 U/ml), and not correlated. No correlations were found between bFGF and age, menopausal status, TNM or pTNM, histology, SBR grading or steroid receptors. A postoperative decline in bFGF positivity, from 30.8 to 7.7% (n = 39), was observed. An abnormal CA 15.3 after primary treatment (n = 2/39) was of bad prognosis (P < 0.0001), whereas positive bFGF (n = 3/39) had no univariate prognostic value (median follow-up 5.5 years). During follow-up, positive bFGF was recorded in 6/92 (6.5%) disease-free patients (DFS), 13/15 (86.7%) regressions, 8/16 (50.0%) stable disease, and 46/67 (68.7%) progressive disease (significant differences between PT or DFS and post recurrence levels (P < 0.001), and between relapse before and after treatment (P = 0.002)).


CONCLUSIONS
Serum bFGF is more often elevated before treatment or after relapse than in DFS, and rises under systemic treatments. Its pattern of variations does not add to CA 15.3 for breast cancer monitoring.
Pichon
M F
MF
Laboratoire d'Immunoanalyse, Centre René Huguenin De Lutte Contre Le Cancer, Saint-Cloud, France.
Moulin
G
G
Pallud
C
C
Pecking
A
A
Floiras
J L
JL
D000367:Age Factors; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology; D018450:Disease Progression; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D016222:Fibroblast Growth Factor 2 / Q000097:blood*; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008593:Menopause; D008875:Middle Aged; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic / Q000379:methods; D018396:Mucin-1 / Q000032:analysis*; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D012372:ROC Curve; D011987:Receptors, Steroid / Q000032:analysis; D012008:Recurrence; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013997:Time Factors
D018396:Mucin-1; D011987:Receptors, Steroid; D016222:Fibroblast Growth Factor 2