Expression of cancer-associated fibroblast related proteins in metastatic breast cancer: an immunohistochemical analysis

Journal of Translational Medicine

Ja Seung Koo¹  Woo Hee Jung¹  Hye Min Kim¹ 

[1] Department of Pathology, Severance Hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine, 50 Yonsei-ro, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 120-752, South Korea

关键词: Stroma;    Molecular subtype;    Cancer-associated fibroblast;    Breast cancer;   

Others  :  1221466
DOI  :  10.1186/s12967-015-0587-9

 received in 2015-01-08, accepted in 2015-06-29,  发布年份 2015

【 摘 要 】

Background

Cancer-associated fibroblast (CAF) is the most studied element of the tumor microenvironment, although no relationship has been identified between expression of their related proteins and the metastasis site. The purpose of this study was to investigate the expression of CAF related proteins and their implications according to the metastasis site in metastatic breast cancer.

Methods

Immunohistochemical staining was used to evaluate the expression of CAF related proteins (podoplanin, prolyl 4-hydroxylase, FAPα, S100A4, PDGFRα, PDGFRβ, and NG2) in tissue microarrays from 132 cases of metastatic breast cancer (bone metastasis: 32 cases, brain metastasis: 38 cases, liver metastasis: 10 cases, and lung metastasis: 52 cases). Breast cancer subtypes were classified as luminal A, luminal B, HER-2, and triple negative breast cancer, according to the immunohistochemical staining results for estrogen and progesterone receptors, HER-2, and Ki-67 and FISH results for HER-2. Tumors were classified as desmoplastic, sclerotic, normal-like, and inflammatory type, according to the histologic findings from the tumor stroma.

Results

Various CAF related protein expression profiles were observed, according to the metastasis site. For bone metastasis, the expression of stromal podoplanin, S100A4, and PDGFRα was significantly high. For lung metastasis, the expression of stromal PDGFRβ was significantly elevated (p < 0.001). For liver metastasis, significantly reduced expression of stromal S100A4 (p = 0.002) and PDGFRα (p = 0.011) was observed. Expression of CAF related proteins also differed according to the stromal phenotype. Desmoplastic stroma exhibited significantly elevated expression of stromal podoplanin (p < 0.001), S100A4 (p < 0.001), PDGFRα (p = 0.010), and PDGFRβ (p = 0.021). Inflammatory stroma exhibited significantly elevated expression of stromal FAPα (p = 0.044) and significantly reduced stromal S100A4 expression (p < 0.001). Sclerotic stroma exhibited significantly elevated tumoral FAPα (p = 0.005) expression. For lung metastasis, shorter overall survival was significantly related to tumoral podoplanin expression (p = 0.006), stromal podoplanin expression (p = 0.018), tumoral prolyl 4-hydroxylase negativity (p = 0.016), and tumoral PDGFRα expression (p = 0.001).

Conclusion

For metastatic breast cancer, significant differences were observed in the expression of CAF related proteins, according to the metastasis site and stromal histologic phenotype.

【 授权许可】

   
2015 Kim et al.

【 图 表 】

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