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C4.4A highly expressed in HER2-positive human breast cancers may indicate a good prognosis

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Abstract

Background

The aim of our study was to investigate the association of C4.4A expression in breast tumors with both patients’ clinicopathological characteristics and outcomes in order to clarify the significance of C4.4A in breast cancer.

Methods

Primary breast cancer patients (n = 125, stage I–III) who had undergone breast mastectomy or breast-conserving surgery at our hospital between 2005 and 2011 were recruited for this study. Tumor samples were obtained from surgical specimens and expression status of C4.4A, estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) and Ki67 was analyzed immunohistochemically, while HER2 amplification was examined using fluorescence in situ hybridization.

Results

Multivariate analysis showed that HER2 positivity was the only independent predictive factor for C4.4A expression (odds ratio 5.31, 95 % confidence interval 2.04–15.72; P < 0.001). Univariate prognostic analysis of the relationship between C4.4A and disease-free survival showed that survival of patients with C4.4A-positive tumors was longer than that of patients with C4.4A-negative tumors in the HER2-positive subset (P = 0.004) while there was no significant difference in patient outcome according to C4.4A status for total patients (median observation period 37 months, range 1–92 months; P = 0.223).

Conclusions

We established a positive relationship between C4.4A and HER2 status, suggesting that C4.4A expression may be a prognostic factor for HER2-positive breast cancer patients.

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Conflict of interest

Y.M. received honoraria from Sanofi, Astra Zeneka K.K. and GlaxoSmithKline K.K.; the other authors have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Breast and Endocrine Surgery, Department of Surgery, Hyogo College of Medicine, 1-1 Mukogawa-cho, Nishinomiya, Hyogo, 663-8501, Japan

    Tomohiro Miyake, Ayako Yanai, Natsuko Inoue, Yoshimasa Miyagawa, Keiko Murase, Michiko Imamura, Shigetoshi Ichii, Yuichi Takatsuka & Yasuo Miyoshi

  2. Department of Surgical Pathology, Hyogo College of Medicine, 1-1 Mukogawa-cho, Nishinomiya, Hyogo, 663-8501, Japan

    Takashi Ito & Seiichi Hirota

  3. Division of Bioinformation, Department of Physiology, Hyogo College of Medicine, 1-1 Mukogawa-cho, Nishinomiya, Hyogo, 663-8501, Japan

    Tomoyuki Nishizaki

  4. Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-2 Yamada-oka, Suita, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan

    Masahisa Ohtsuka & Hirofumi Yamamoto

  5. Department of Breast and Endocrine Surgery, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-2-E10 Yamada-oka, Suita, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan

    Tomohiro Miyake & Shinzaburo Noguchi

Authors
  1. Tomohiro Miyake
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  2. Takashi Ito
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  3. Ayako Yanai
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  10. Tomoyuki Nishizaki
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  11. Seiichi Hirota
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  12. Masahisa Ohtsuka
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  15. Yasuo Miyoshi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yasuo Miyoshi.

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Miyake, T., Ito, T., Yanai, A. et al. C4.4A highly expressed in HER2-positive human breast cancers may indicate a good prognosis. Breast Cancer 22, 366–373 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12282-013-0487-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12282-013-0487-x

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