Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany.
PLoS One. 2012;7(9):e44741. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0044741. Epub 2012 Sep 28.
Biomarkers of the immune system are currently not used as prognostic factors in breast cancer. We analyzed the association of the B cell/plasma cell marker immunoglobulin kappa C (IGKC) and survival of untreated node-negative breast cancer patients.
IGKC expression was evaluated by immunostaining in a cohort of 335 node-negative breast cancer patients with a median follow-up of 152 months. The prognostic significance of IGKC for disease-free survival (DFS) and breast cancer-specific overall survival (OS) was evaluated with Kaplan-Meier survival analysis as well as univariate and multivariate Cox analysis adjusted for age at diagnosis, pT stage, histological grade, estrogen receptor (ER) status, progesterone receptor (PR) status, Ki-67 and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2) status.
160 patients (47.7%) showed strong expression of IGKC. Univariate analysis showed that IGKC was significantly associated with DFS (P = 0.017, hazard ratio [HR] = 0.570, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.360-0.903) and OS (P = 0.011, HR = 0.438, 95% CI = 0.233-0.822) in the entire cohort. The significance of IGKC was especially strong in ER negative and in luminal B carcinomas. In multivariate analysis IGKC retained its significance independent of established clinical factors for DFS (P = 0.004, HR = 0.504, 95% CI = 0.315-0.804) as well as for OS (P = 0.002, HR = 0.371, 95% CI = 0.196-0.705).
Expression of IGKC has an independent protective impact on DFS and OS in node-negative breast cancer.
目前，免疫系统的生物标志物并未被用作乳腺癌的预后因素。我们分析了 B 细胞/浆细胞标志物免疫球蛋白 κC（IGKC）与未经治疗的淋巴结阴性乳腺癌患者生存的相关性。
在一组 335 例淋巴结阴性乳腺癌患者中，通过免疫组化评估 IGKC 的表达，中位随访时间为 152 个月。使用 Kaplan-Meier 生存分析以及调整诊断时年龄、pT 分期、组织学分级、雌激素受体（ER）状态、孕激素受体（PR）状态、Ki-67 和人表皮生长因子受体 2（HER-2）状态的单变量和多变量 Cox 分析评估 IGKC 对无病生存期（DFS）和乳腺癌特异性总生存期（OS）的预后意义。
160 例患者（47.7%）表现出 IGKC 的强表达。单变量分析表明，IGKC 与 DFS（P=0.017，风险比[HR]=0.570，95%置信区间[CI]=0.360-0.903）和 OS（P=0.011，HR=0.438，95%CI=0.233-0.822）显著相关。在 ER 阴性和 luminal B 型乳腺癌中，IGKC 的意义更为显著。在多变量分析中，IGKC 在独立于 DFS 既定临床因素（P=0.004，HR=0.504，95%CI=0.315-0.804）以及 OS（P=0.002，HR=0.371，95%CI=0.196-0.705）方面仍然具有重要意义。
IGKC 的表达对淋巴结阴性乳腺癌的 DFS 和 OS 具有独立的保护作用。
