title: Expression of MAGE-A3/6 in primary breast cancer is associated with hormone receptor negative status, high histologic grade, and poor survival.
abstract: The cancer testis antigen (CTA), melanoma-associated antigen A3/6 (MAGE-A3/6), is expressed in human cancers of different histologic types, to variable extents, and is an important target for immunotherapy. In this study, to address the potential of MAGE-A3/6 as an immunotherapeutic target in breast cancer (BC), we assessed MAGE-A3/6 expression by PCR in a cohort of 362 primary BC tumors and analyzed the correlation between MAGE-A3/6 expression, tumors hormone receptor (HR) status, and other clinicopathologic features. We found expression of MAGE-A3/6 in 10% of primary BC tumors. MAGE-A3/6 expression was significantly correlated with estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) negative status and was frequent in ER (29%) and in PR (24%) tumors. MAGE-A3/6 expression was also significantly associated with high histologic grade but not with patients age, tumor size, tumor type, lymph-node invasion, and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) overexpression. Consistent with the associated poor clinicopathologic features, patients with MAGE-A3/6-expressing tumors had a worse disease-specific survival as compared with patients with MAGE-A3/6 tumors. The frequent expression of MAGE-A3/6 in tumors of patients with primary HR BC, who have, for a large part, limited therapeutic options, encourages the selection of BC patients bearing MAGE-A3/6-expressing tumors for targeted immunotherapy.
authors: *Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, Unité 1102, Equipe Labellisée Ligue Contre le Cancer, Institut de Cancérologie de l'Ouest, Nantes-Saint Herblain †Faculty of Medicine, University of Nantes, Nantes, France.
authors: Maha
authors: M
authors: Ayyoub
authors: Clara-Maria
authors: CM
authors: Scarlata
authors: Ahmed
authors: A
authors: Hamaï
authors: Pascale
authors: P
authors: Pignon
authors: Danila
authors: D
authors: Valmori
mesh_terms: D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy*; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology / Q000401:mortality; D005260:Female; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D058990:Molecular Targeted Therapy; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000378:metabolism; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen / Q000378:metabolism; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone / Q000378:metabolism; D016019:Survival Analysis
chemical_list: D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone; C072013:MAGEA3 protein, human; C508053:ERBB2 protein, human