Irina Nita

The influence of excess adipose tissue on the evolution and prognosis of breast cancer has been evaluated in numerous papers over the years. The ways in which obesity can influence the development, progression, and prognosis of this neoplasia are complex and requires the design of new studies, both clinical and preclinical. The aim of this study is to highlight a possible correlation between obesity-specific tumor microenvironment markers (adipokine or leptin) and the different histological subtypes and aggressive characteristics of breast tumors. We prospectively monitored the prognostic values of 39 patients diagnosed with breast cancer who received oncologic-specific treatment or are in follow-up regarding some obesity markers. Our analysis included parameters such as age, body mass index, immunohistochemical characteristics, and plasma concentration of leptin. The methodology was designed to reveal a possible correlation between obesity (quantified by measuring body mass index and waist circumference), the plasma level of leptin, and breast tumor immunohistochemical characteristics. The patients diagnosed with aggressive tumors subtypes (HER2-positive and triple-negative) had a significantly higher body mass index than patients diagnosed with luminal type tumors (32 kg/sqm versus 27 kg/sqm), the difference being 5 kg/sqm. In patients with non-luminal type breast tumors (HER2-positive and triple-negative), serum concentration of leptin is 55 pg/ml compared to 48 pg/ml in luminal type, statistically significant, p=0.0168. Leptin plays an important role in the connection of specific microenvironment tumors to breast cancer. An increased serum concentration of this adipokine was found in patients with HER2-positive and triple-negative breast tumors compared with luminal-type breast tumors, which could open new directions in the research of breast cancer prognosis in obese patients.

Background: We investigated the correlation between the androgen receptor (AR) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) as a prognostic factor in breast cancer (BC). AR is expressed in 60–80% of BC. Methods: We evaluated the prognostic values of AR expression among 143 patients with BC for 36 months. The protocol was amended to measure androgen, estrogen and progesterone receptor expression by IHC and the percentage of hormone positive nuclei was quantified. We determined and quantified the Her2/neu status using IHC and in situ hybridization. The methodology consisted in using a Kaplan–Meier analysis and restricted mean survival time up to 36 months. The principal endpoints of the study were overall survival (OS) and progression free survival (PFS). Results: 57% of patients (n = 82) from our group had AR+ (≥ 1%). Patients with AR+ had better OS, 35.50 vs. 33.40 months, with p = 0.027. Moreover, PFS was prolonged for patients AR+, 32.60 vs. 30.50 months, with p = 0.38. Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients had lower OS and no difference was observed for PFS. Conclusions: Both OS and PFS were favorably influenced by the presence of AR. TNBC had worse outcomes compared with patients with hormonal or/and Her 2/neu positive disease in terms of OS.