Abstract
This study investigated the prognostic value of immunohistochemically detected cathepsin D expression in 103 invasive ductal carcinomas of the breast at stages pT1 and 2. We also assessed the association between cathepsin D expression and histomorphological tumour subtypes (invasive ductal carcinoma with extensive intraductal component, multifocal tumour). Cathepsin D expression was examined at two cut-off levels (positive and highly positive) and separately identified within the epithelial and stromal component of all tumours. Positive and highly positive epithelial expression was detected in 32 (31.1%) and 20 (19.4%) patients respectively. Stromal expression was found in 35 (34%) and 19 (18.4%) cases respectively. Epithelial cathepsin D expression was associated with stage and nuclear grade, but not with lymph node or oestrogen receptor status. Positive and highly positive epithelial cathepsin D expression showed significant prognostic value for overall survival (P = 0.003 and 0.01) and recurrence-free interval (P = 0.04 and 0.02). Cathepsin D expression in stromal cells was not associated with either several established prognostic factors or survival. Multivariate analysis revealed that cathepsin D expression failed to be an independent predictor of patients' outcome. Cathepsin D expression shows no significant association with histomorphological subtypes of breast cancer. Our study supports the prognostic impact of immunohistochemically detected cathepsin D expression in the epithelial component of breast cancer.
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lösch, A., Tempfer, C., Kohlberger, P. et al. Prognostic value of cathepsin D expression and association with histomorphological subtypes in breast cancer. Br J Cancer 78, 205–209 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/bjc.1998.465
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/bjc.1998.465
- Springer Nature Limited
This article is cited by
-
Firth adjusted score function for monotone likelihood in the mixture cure fraction model
Lifetime Data Analysis (2021)
-
Proteome analysis of breast cancer cells (8701-BC) cultured from primary ductal infiltrating carcinoma: relation to correspondent breast tissues
Breast Cancer Research (2000)
-
Determination of c-myc amplification and overexpression in breast cancer patients: evaluation of its prognostic value against c-erbB-2, cathepsin-D and clinicopathological characteristics using univariate and multivariate analysis
British Journal of Cancer (1999)