Immunohistochemical analysis of IGCK expression in early breast cancer patients treated with adjuvant chemotherapy

Background In previous studies we could demonstrate that the presence of immunoglobulin kappa C (IGKC) positive tumor infiltrating plasma cells was associated with a better prognosis in node-negative breast cancer patients who didn’t receive any adjuvant treatment after operation and irradiation. In the present study we evaluated the prognostic significance of IGKC in breast cancer patients treated with chemotherapy in the adjuvant setting.

Methods IGKC expression was immunohistochemically analyzed in193 patients who received an adjuvant chemotherapy with either CMF or FEC between 1993 and 2001 at the Department of gynecology and obstetrics of the University hospital Mainz with a median follow up of 11 years. The prognostic impact of IGKC expression was evaluated by Kaplan Meier survival analyses as well as uni - and multivariate Cox-regression.

Results Kaplan Meier analyses identified IGKC as a prognostic marker in regard to metastasis-free survival (MFS): higher IGKC expression was correlated with a better outcome (p = 0.02 Log Rank). Results of univariate Cox Regression confirmed the prognostic impact of IGKC expression: patients with a strong IGKC expression had a longer MFS compared to the patients with a weak IGKC expression (HR1.931; p = 0.025). Multivariate cox regression analysis showed an independent prognostic significance of IGKC expression (HR 2.486, p = 0.012). The interaction term which was performed as a part of cox regression analysis confirmed a significant interaction between tamoxifen treatment and the prognostic impact of IGKC expression (P_interaction = 0.01).

Conclusion IGKC expression showed independent prognostic impact in the analyzed cohort of 193 breast cancer patients who received adjuvant chemotherapy.

Interessenkonflikt

Es bestehen keine Interessenkonflikte.

Publikationsverlauf

Artikel online veröffentlicht:
07. Oktober 2020