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Prostate-specific membrane antigen in breast cancer: a comprehensive evaluation of expression and a case report of radionuclide therapy

  • Preclinical study
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Breast Cancer Research and Treatment Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA), a protein product of the folate hydrolase 1 (FOLH1) gene, is gaining increasing acceptance as a target for positron emission tomography/computer tomography (PET/CT) imaging in patients with several cancer types, including breast cancer. So far, PSMA expression in breast cancer endothelia has not been sufficiently characterized.

Methods

This study comprised 315 cases of invasive carcinoma of no special type (NST) and lobular breast cancer (median follow-up time 9.0 years). PSMA expression on tumor endothelia was detected by immunohistochemistry. Further, vascular mRNA expression of the FOLH1 gene (PSMA) was investigated in a cohort of patients with invasive breast cancer provided by The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA).

Results

Sixty percent of breast cancer cases exhibited PSMA-positive endothelia with higher expression rates in tumors of higher grade, NST subtype with Her2-positivity, and lack of hormone receptors. These findings were confirmed on mRNA expression levels. The highest PSMA rates were observed in triple-negative carcinomas (4.5 × higher than in other tumors). Further, a case of a patient with metastatic breast cancer showing PSMA expression in PET/CT imaging and undergoing PSMA radionuclide therapy is discussed in detail.

Conclusions

This study provides a rationale for the further development of PSMA-targeted imaging in breast cancer, especially in triple-negative tumors.

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Acknowledgements

No funding was received for this study.

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Author notes

  1. Yuri Tolkach, Heidrun Gevensleben and Ralph Bundschuh are contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Pathology, Center for Integrated Oncology, University Hospital Bonn, University of Bonn, Sigmund-Freud-Str. 25, 53127, Bonn, Germany

    Yuri Tolkach, Heidrun Gevensleben, Aydan Koyun & Glen Kristiansen

  2. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Center for Integrated Oncology, University Hospital Bonn, University of Bonn, 53127, Bonn, Germany

    Ralph Bundschuh, Hojjat Ahmadzadehfar & Markus Essler

  3. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Center for Integrated Oncology, University Hospital Bonn, University of Bonn, 53127, Bonn, Germany

    Daniela Huber, Christina Kehrer, Thomas Hecking, Mignon-Denise Keyver-Paik, Christina Kaiser & Walther Kuhn

Authors
  1. Yuri Tolkach
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  2. Heidrun Gevensleben
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  3. Ralph Bundschuh
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  6. Christina Kehrer
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  8. Mignon-Denise Keyver-Paik
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  9. Christina Kaiser
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  10. Hojjat Ahmadzadehfar
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  11. Markus Essler
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  13. Glen Kristiansen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Glen Kristiansen.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Markus Essler, Walther Kuhn and Glen Kristiansen—shared senior authors.

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Tolkach, Y., Gevensleben, H., Bundschuh, R. et al. Prostate-specific membrane antigen in breast cancer: a comprehensive evaluation of expression and a case report of radionuclide therapy. Breast Cancer Res Treat 169, 447–455 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-018-4717-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-018-4717-y

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