Immunoglobulin Kappa C Predicts Overall Survival in Node-Negative Breast Cancer |
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| Authors: | Zonglin Chen Aslihan Gerhold-Ay Susanne Gebhard Daniel Boehm Christine Solbach Antje Lebrecht Marco Battista Isabel Sicking Christina Cotarelo Cristina Cadenas Rosemarie Marchan Joanna D Stewart Mathias Gehrmann Heinz Koelbl Jan G Hengstler Marcus Schmidt |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany.; 2. Department of Medical Biometry, Epidemiology and Informatics, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany.; 3. Department of Pathology, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany.; 4. Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors (IfADo), Dortmund University of Technology, Dortmund, Germany.; 5. Bayer GmbH, Leverkusen, Germany.; Sudbury Regional Hospital, Canada, |
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| Abstract: | BackgroundBiomarkers 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.Material and MethodsIGKC 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.Results160 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).ConclusionExpression of IGKC has an independent protective impact on DFS and OS in node-negative breast cancer. |
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