Expression of disialoganglioside GD2 and prognosis in breast cancer subtypes

Zielsetzung The disialoganglioside GD2 is a tumor-associated antigen that may allow targeted immunotherapies (e.g., anti-GD2 antibodies, GD2 CAR T cells) in patients with neuroblastoma and other solid tumors. Since GD2 expression has also been reported in subpopulations of breast cancer patients, this study investigated GD2 expression and its impact on survival.

Materialien und Methoden GD2 expression was retrospectively analyzed in a cohort of 894 breast cancer patients, using immunohistochemistry (IHC) and immunofluorescence (IF) on tissue microarrays (TMAs). GD2 expression on IHC (n = 568) and IF (n = 503) was associated with subtypes and patient outcome.

Ergebnisse In all, 50.2 % of 568 IHC-assessed samples and 69.8 % of 503 IF-assessed samples were GD2-positive. The highest proportion of GD2-positive tumors was observed in luminal breast cancer. Significantly fewer GD2-positive cases were detected in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) compared with other subtypes. The proportions of GD2-expressing tumors were significantly lower in HER2-positive breast cancer in comparison with luminal tumors on IF staining (but not IHC). GD2 expression on IHC or IF was not significantly associated with disease-free or overall survival, either in the overall cohort or in the individual subtypes.

Zusammenfassung GD2 expression can be found in more than 50 % of breast cancer tumors, with the highest frequency in hormone receptor-positive tumors. No correlations between GD2 expression and prognosis were observed. Patients with GD2-positive advanced breast cancer of all subtypes may benefit from GD2-targeting immunotherapies, which are currently undergoing clinical testing.

Interessenkonflikt

P.A.F. has received honoraria from Roche, Pfizer, Novartis, and Celgene. His institution conducts research for Novartis, Cepheid, and BioNTech. A.H. has received honoraria from BMS, MSD, Roche, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Abbvie, Jansen-Cilag, and Ipsen. R.E. has received honoraria from Roche, Eisai, Pfizer, and Novartis and travel grants from BioNTech. The institution of A.H. and R.E. conducts research for AstraZeneca, Roche, Janssen-Cilag, NanoString Technologies, No-vartis, Cepheid, and BioNTech. C.R. has received honoraria from Amgen, BMS, Celgene, EUSA-Pharm, Genentech, Novartis, Pfizer, and Roche. The other authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Publication History

Article published online:
01 June 2021