Abstract
Purpose
We investigated the expression profiles of immune genes in patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) to identify the prognostic value of immune genes and their clinical implications.
Methods
NanoString nCounter Analysis of 770 immune-related genes was used to measure immune gene expression in patients with TNBC who underwent curative surgery followed by adjuvant chemotherapy at Samsung Medical Center between 2000 and 2004. Statistical analyses were conducted to identify the associations between gene expression and distant recurrence-free survival (DRFS).
Results
Of 1189 patients who underwent curative BC surgery, 200 TNBC patients were included and stage was the only clinical factor predictive of DRFS. In terms of immune genes, 155 of 770 genes were associated with DRFS (p < 0.01). Further multivariate analysis revealed that 13 genes, CD1B, CD53, CT45A1, GTF3C1, IL11RA, IL1RN, LRRN3, MAPK1, NEFL, PRKCE, PTPRC, SPACA3 and TNFSF11, were associated with patient prognosis (p < 0.05). The prognostic value of stage and expression levels of 13 immune genes was analyzed and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was 0.923. Based on the AUC, we divided patients into three genetic risk groups and DRFS rate was significantly different according to genetic risk groups, even in the same stage (p < 0.001).
Conclusions
In this study, a 13-gene expression profile in combination with stage precisely predicted distant recurrence of early TNBC. Therefore, this 13-immune-gene signature could help predict TNBC prognosis and provide guidance for treatment as well as the opportunity to develop new targets for immunotherapy in TNBC patients.
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Funding
This work was supported by grants from the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2017R1D1A1B03028446, NRF-2018R1D1A1B07047723) and supported by Institute for Information &communications Technology Promotion (IITP) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (2018–0-00861, Intelligent SW Technology Development for Medical Data Analysis), and supported by the Korea Health Technology R&D Project through the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI), funded by the Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea (grant number: HR20C0025).
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Conception: JK, HHJ, YI; Data collection: JK, JEL, EYC, SKL, JHY, JEL, SWK, SJN, YHP, JSA, YI; Data analyses: JK, HHJ, IS, SYW, HC, JEL; Manuscript preparation: JK, YI; Manuscript review: all authors.
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The institutional review board of Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, Korea approved this study protocol and waived the need for informed consent because this study used archival tissues and retrospective clinical data (IRB no: 2012–08-065).
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Kim, JY., Jung, H.H., Sohn, I. et al. Prognostication of a 13-immune-related-gene signature in patients with early triple-negative breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res Treat 184, 325–334 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-020-05874-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-020-05874-1