Couto Henrique L, Buzelin Marcelo A, Toppa Nivaldo H, Bloise Enrrico, Wainstein Alberto J, Reis Fernando M
Division of Human Reproduction and Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Department of Oncology, Hospital Alberto Cavalcanti, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Oncotarget. 2017 Jun 27;8(26):42189-42197. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.15026.
Follistatin-like 3 (FSTL3) binds and inactivates activin, a growth factor involved with cell growth and differentiation. We have previously shown FSTL3 overexpression in invasive breast cancers, but its clinical relevance remained unexplored. Here we evaluate FSTL3 as a prognostic tool and its relation with clinical and pathological features of breast cancer. A cohort of 154 women diagnosed with invasive breast cancer between 2008 and 2012 was followed up for 5 years. Tumor samples were processed by immunohistochemistry to detect FSTL3 expression in tumor epithelium. FSTL3 expression was classified semiquantitatively and tested for possible correlation with age, menopause status, stage, tumor histological type and grade, estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and HER2 expression. Survival plots with Kaplan-Mayer statistics were used to assess whether FSTL3 expression predicted disease-free survival. Our findings show that FSTL3 staining was unrelated to menopausal status, histological type, disease stage, or receptor profile. However, the intensity of FSTL3 immunostaining correlated inversely with tumor size (r = -0.366, p<0.001) and with nuclear grade (p<0.01). The intensity of FSTL3 expression in the tumoral epithelium was not predictive of the disease-free survival (p = 0.991, log-rank test), even though the follow-up length and the study size were sufficient to detect a significant reduction in disease-free survival among women with stage III-IV compared to stage I-II disease (p<0.001). FSTL3 expression in invasive breast cancer is inversely associated with tumor size and nuclear grade but it does not predict disease relapse in the short term.
卵泡抑素样蛋白3（FSTL3）可结合并使激活素失活，激活素是一种参与细胞生长和分化的生长因子。我们之前已表明FSTL3在浸润性乳腺癌中过表达，但其临床相关性仍未得到探索。在此，我们评估FSTL3作为一种预后工具及其与乳腺癌临床和病理特征的关系。对2008年至2012年间确诊为浸润性乳腺癌的154名女性队列进行了5年随访。通过免疫组织化学处理肿瘤样本以检测肿瘤上皮中FSTL3的表达。FSTL3表达进行半定量分类，并测试其与年龄、绝经状态、分期、肿瘤组织学类型和分级、雌激素受体、孕激素受体及HER2表达的可能相关性。使用Kaplan - Meier统计的生存曲线来评估FSTL3表达是否能预测无病生存期。我们的研究结果表明，FSTL3染色与绝经状态、组织学类型、疾病分期或受体特征无关。然而，FSTL3免疫染色强度与肿瘤大小呈负相关（r = -0.366，p<0.001），与核分级呈负相关（p<0.01）。肿瘤上皮中FSTL3表达强度不能预测无病生存期（p = 0.991，对数秩检验），尽管随访时间长度和研究规模足以检测到与I - II期疾病相比，III - IV期女性无病生存期的显著降低（p<0.001）。浸润性乳腺癌中FSTL3表达与肿瘤大小和核分级呈负相关，但不能预测短期内疾病复发。
