title: Prognostic Value of Preoperative Serum Levels of Periostin (PN) in Early Breast Cancer (BCa).
abstract: PN is a secreted cell adhesion protein critical for carcinogenesis. Elevated serum levels of PN have been implicated as playing an important role in different types of cancer, and a few reports suggest a potential role as a prognostic marker. We evaluated the prognostic significance of preoperative serum PN concentration in patients with BCa receiving curative surgery. Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) was performed to determine the preoperative serum PN level in 182 patients. The correlations between serum PN concentration with clinical pathological features and PN expression in primary tumor samples were analyzed. The prognostic impact of serum PN levels with all-cause and BCa-specific mortality was also investigated. Appropriate statistics were used. Elevated serum PN levels were significantly associated with patient age (p = 0.005), adjuvant systemic therapy (p = 0.04) and progesterone receptor (PgR) status (p = 0.02). No correlation between PN preoperative serum levels and other clinical-pathological parameters, including either the epithelial or the stromal PN expression of primary tumor or the combination of the two, was found. Similarly, no association between serum PN levels and either all-cause or BCa-specific mortality was found. However, subgroup analysis revealed a correlation between higher PN serum levels and all-cause mortality in patients with node-negative disease (p = 0.05) and in those with a low PgR expression (p = 0.03). Higher levels of serum PN were also found to correlate with BCa-specific mortality in the subgroup of patients who did not receive any adjuvant systemic therapy (p = 0.04). Our findings suggest that PN was detectable in the serum of early BCa patients before surgery and increased base-line serum levels predicted worse long-term survival outcomes in specific subgroups of patients.
authors.affiliation: Academic Unit of Medical Oncology, IRCCS San Martino University Hospital-IST National Cancer Research Institute, Largo Rosanna Benzi 10, 16132 Genoa, Italy. piervitale.nuzzo@libero.it.|Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Genoa, Largo Rosanna Benzi 10, 16132 Genoa, Italy. piervitale.nuzzo@libero.it.
authors.forename: Pier Vitale
authors.initials: PV
authors.lastname: Nuzzo
authors.affiliation: Academic Unit of Medical Oncology, IRCCS San Martino University Hospital-IST National Cancer Research Institute, Largo Rosanna Benzi 10, 16132 Genoa, Italy. alessandra.rubagotti@unige.it.|Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Genoa, Largo Rosanna Benzi 10, 16132 Genoa, Italy. alessandra.rubagotti@unige.it.
authors.forename: Alessandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rubagotti
authors.affiliation: Academic Unit of Medical Oncology, IRCCS San Martino University Hospital-IST National Cancer Research Institute, Largo Rosanna Benzi 10, 16132 Genoa, Italy. francesca.argellati@libero.it.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Argellati
authors.affiliation: Academic Unit of Medical Oncology, IRCCS San Martino University Hospital-IST National Cancer Research Institute, Largo Rosanna Benzi 10, 16132 Genoa, Italy. antonio.dimeglio@rocketmail.com.|Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Genoa, Largo Rosanna Benzi 10, 16132 Genoa, Italy. antonio.dimeglio@rocketmail.com.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Di Meglio
authors.affiliation: Academic Unit of Medical Oncology, IRCCS San Martino University Hospital-IST National Cancer Research Institute, Largo Rosanna Benzi 10, 16132 Genoa, Italy. elisa.zanardi@unige.it.|Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Genoa, Largo Rosanna Benzi 10, 16132 Genoa, Italy. elisa.zanardi@unige.it.
authors.forename: Elisa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Zanardi
authors.affiliation: Academic Unit of Medical Oncology, IRCCS San Martino University Hospital-IST National Cancer Research Institute, Largo Rosanna Benzi 10, 16132 Genoa, Italy. linda.zinoli@libero.it.
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zinoli
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, IRCCS San Martino University Hospital-IST National Cancer Research Institute Largo Rosanna Benzi 10, 16132 Genoa, Italy. paola.comite@libero.it.
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Comite
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, IRCCS San Martino University Hospital-IST National Cancer Research Institute Largo Rosanna Benzi 10, 16132 Genoa, Italy. michele.mussap@hsanmartino.it.
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mussap
authors.affiliation: Academic Unit of Medical Oncology, IRCCS San Martino University Hospital-IST National Cancer Research Institute, Largo Rosanna Benzi 10, 16132 Genoa, Italy. f.boccardo@unige.it.|Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Genoa, Largo Rosanna Benzi 10, 16132 Genoa, Italy. f.boccardo@unige.it.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Boccardo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000473:pathology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules / Q000097:blood* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D060787:Neoplasm Grading; D057234:Preoperative Period
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules; C512835:POSTN protein, human
keywords: biomarkers; breast neoplasms; enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; extracellular matrix proteins; periostin protein; prognosis