title: Long-term follow-up and prognostic significance of angiogenic basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) expression in patients with breast cancer.
abstract: The development of distant metastasis in breast cancer patients is the key step towards worse prognosis. The angiogenic basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) has been associated with tumorigenesis and metastasis in several human cancers. Therefore, bFGF expression was studied by immunohistochemistry in 111 patients with primary breast cancer. The results were correlated with prognostically relevant clinico-pathological features. such as tumor stage, grading. nodal stage and survival. bFGF was expressed in approximately 70% of the breast cancer tissues; 30% of the tumors showed strongly positive staining. With the exception of histological grading (p < 0.05), no correlation was found between the extent of bFGF expression and prognostic parameters. Analysis of survival showed a significantly (p < 0.05) prolonged survival for patients with a concomitant absence of axillary lymph node metastasis and bFGF immunoreactivity. Our data suggest that increased bFGF expression is a novel parameter for worse prognosis in nodal-negative breast cancer patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Technical University, Aachen, Germany.
authors.forename: Andree
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Faridi
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rudlowski
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Biesterfeld
authors.forename: Silke
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schuh
authors.forename: Werner
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Rath
authors.forename: Willibald
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Schröder
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality / Q000556:secondary; D005260:Female; D016222:Fibroblast Growth Factor 2 / Q000378:metabolism*; D019084:Fluorescent Antibody Technique, Indirect; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000473:pathology; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis / Q000473:pathology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D011379:Prognosis; D016019:Survival Analysis; D015996:Survival Rate
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D016222:Fibroblast Growth Factor 2