title: Elevated plasma TGF-beta1 levels correlate with decreased survival of metastatic breast cancer patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The role of circulating TGF-beta(1) in prognosis of breast cancer (BC) was investigated with an intention to define TGF-beta(1)-dependent high risk and low risk subsets of patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifty three BC patients of all clinical stages and 37 healthy donors (HD) were analyzed for plasma TGF-beta(1) by the TbetaRII receptor-based Quantikine TGF-beta(1) ELISA kit.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The plasma TGF-beta(1) level of Stage I/II disease (median: 0.94 ng/ml; n=10)) remained close to HD (median: 1.30 ng/ml; n=37; p>0.1). In contrast, Stage III/IV disease (median: 2.34 ng/ml; n=43) exhibited highly significant TGF-beta(1) elevation (p<0.001) relative to HD. Further analysis revealed that TGF-beta(1) increase was predominantly attributed to Stage IV, metastatic disease patients (Q3=4.23 ng/ml) rather than to the group Stage III/IV (Q3=3.58 ng/ml). Using the plasma TGF-beta(1) concentration of 3.00 ng/ml as the cut-off value, two subgroups of patients were formed. Overall 2-year survival of the first subgroup, having elevated plasma TGF-beta(1) (>3.00 ng/ml; n=10), was 10%. This was significantly decreased (p<0.05) compared to 52% survival observed for the second subgroup of patients with plasma TGFbeta(1) values close to HD (<3.00 ng/ml, n=19).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We have performed a pilot study to determine the relationship between overall survival and TGF-beta(1) concentration in the blood of metastatic breast cancer patients. The survival was significantly reduced in the patients with elevated plasma TGF-beta(1) levels compared to that of the patients with plasma TGF-beta(1) levels close to normal. We propose that plasma TGF-beta(1) concentration may be a new tumour marker attributed to the presence of metastatic BC cells that may be used in selection of metastatic BC patients with poor prognosis.
authors.forename: Vesna
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ivanović
authors.forename: Miroslav
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Demajo
authors.forename: Koviljka
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Krtolica
authors.forename: Milena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Krajnović
authors.forename: Miroslav
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Konstantinović
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Baltić
authors.forename: Gordana
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Prtenjak
authors.forename: Bratislav
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Stojiljković
authors.forename: Milan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Breberina
authors.forename: Zora
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Nesković-Konstantinović
authors.forename: Dragica
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Nikolić-Vukosavljević
authors.forename: Bogomir
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dimitrijević
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D018450:Disease Progression; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis / Q000473:pathology; D009367:Neoplasm Staging / Q000401:mortality; D011379:Prognosis; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta / Q000097:blood*; D053773:Transforming Growth Factor beta1
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C508960:TGFB1 protein, human; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta; D053773:Transforming Growth Factor beta1