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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Immunoglobulin Kappa C Has Independent Prognostic Significance in Node-Negative Breast Cancer.

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Abstract Background: Utilizing microarray based gene-expression analysis of fresh-frozen tissue we could recently demonstrate the prognostic impact of a B cell metagene in node-negative breast cancer (Cancer Res 68: 5405-5413, 2008). In the present study we investigated the prognostic significance of immunoglobulin kappa c (IGKC) in formalin-fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) breast cancer specimens of 363 node-negative breast cancer patients which were not treated in the adjuvant setting.Methods: RT-PCR was used to analyze mRNA expression of IGKC in FFPE tissue of 363 patients with node-negative breast cancer. Additionally to IGKC we examined the prognostic impact of age, histological grade, tumor size, estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR). Metastasis-free survival (MFS) was analyzed with uni- and multivariate Cox regression.Results: Median follow-up was 10 years. 69 patients (19%) developed distant metastasis. Univariate analysis showed significant results for histological grade (HR 2.2, 95% CI 1.54-3.19, p<0.0001), tumor size (HR 1.48, 95% CI 1.22-1.77, p=0.0002) and IGKC. Patients with a higher expression of IGKC showed better MFS (HR 0.84, 95% CI 0.76-0.92, p= 0.0004). Age, ER and PR failed to show an association with MFS in univariate Cox regression. Using multivariate Cox regression, IGKC retained its independent prognostic significance (HR 0.85, 95% CI 0.77-0.93, p=0.0005). Besides IGKC histological grade (HR 2.5, 95% CI 1.62-3.77, p<0.0001) and ER (HR 1.08, 95% CI 1.01-1.16, p=0.031) showed an independent association with MFS.Conclusion: Utilizing FFPE we could prove the independent prognostic significance of IGKC in 363 node-negative breast cancer patients. This should aid in incorporating the prognostic impact of the immune system into prognostic algorithms based on FFPE tissue. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2009;69(24 Suppl):Abstract nr 4067.