Soluble VE-cadherin in metastatic breast cancer : an independent prognostic factor for both progression-free survival and overall survival
Menée à partir d'échantillons sériques prélevés sur 141 patientes atteintes d'un cancer métastatique du sein réfractaire à l'hormonothérapie, cette étude française met en évidence une association entre le niveau de la VE-cadhérine, une cadhérine spécifique de l'endothélium vasculaire, et la survie sans progression ou la survie globale
Background : Patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC) represent a heterogeneous group, with large differences in outcomes from individual patients. VE-cadherin, an endothelial-specific cadherin, was shown to promote tumour proliferation and angiogenesis. Soluble VE-cadherin has been recently associated to breast cancer progression. This study was designed to investigate the prognosis significance of soluble VE-cadherin in hormone-refractory MBC.
Methods : Between 2004 and 2007, 150 patients with a fully documented history of hormone-refractory MBC were included in the prospective SEMTOF study. Serum concentrations of VE-cadherin were measured at inclusion for 141 patients and 6 weeks after the beginning of chemotherapy, using a sandwich enzyme immunoassay.
Results : The presence of high levels of serum VE-cadherin was significantly correlated to a shorter progression-free (PFS) and overall survival (OS). In a multivariate analysis along with clinical and biologic prognostic parameters, high serum VE-cadherin level was an independent adverse prognostic variable for PFS (median PFS 9.7 (IC95: 8; 11.9) vs 5.8 (IC95: 4.1; 8) months P=0.0008) and OS (median OS 34 (IC95: 26.6; 47.1) vs 14.8 (IC95: 9.3; 21.4) months P=0.0007). Moreover, VE-cadherin decrease during chemotherapy was also associated with good prognosis.
Conclusions : Serum VE-cadherin levels correlate to poorer survival in patients with hormone-refractory MBC. As sVE-cadherin reflects tumour angiogenesis, this could have therapeutic implications for antiangiogenic treatment.
British Journal of Cancer , résumé, 2016