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Published in: European Journal of Medical Research 1/2023

Open Access 01-12-2023 | Breast Cancer | Research

Clinical verification of the relationship between serum lipid metabolism and immune activity in breast cancer patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy

Authors: Wataru Goto, Shinichiro Kashiwagi, Koji Takada, Yuka Asano, Kana Ogisawa, Tamami Morisaki, Masatsune Shibutani, Hiroaki Tanaka, Kiyoshi Maeda

Published in: European Journal of Medical Research | Issue 1/2023

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Abstract

Background

Lipid metabolism has been recently reported to affect the prognosis and tumor immune activity in cancer patients. However, the effect of lipid metabolism on chemosensitivity in patients with breast cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) remains unclear.

Methods

We examined 327 patients with breast cancer who were treated with NAC followed by curative surgery. The correlations between the serum levels of total cholesterol (TC) and triglyceride (TG) and the clinicopathological features, including the efficacy of NAC, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and absolute lymphocyte count (ALC), were evaluated retrospectively.

Results

Serum TG levels were increased after NAC in all the subtypes, and the rate of change was the highest, especially in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) (21.0% → 48.1%). In addition, only TNBC patients with an objective response (OR) had significantly higher TG levels after NAC than those without (P = 0.049). Patients with a high ALC before NAC had significantly higher TG levels after NAC than patients with all breast cancer (P = 0.001), HER2-enriched breast cancer (P = 0.021), and TNBC (P = 0.008). Patients with a low NLR before NAC had significantly higher TG levels after NAC only among patients with TNBC (P = 0.025). In patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-enriched breast cancer, the group with normal TC levels before NAC had significantly better OS than those with high TC levels (P = 0.013, log-rank test), and in patients with TNBC, the group with high TC levels after NAC had significantly better OS than those with normal TC levels (P = 0.014, log-rank test).

Conclusions

Good systemic immune activity and chemosensitivity may be associated with lipid metabolism regulated by NAC in TNBC patients.
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Metadata
Title
Clinical verification of the relationship between serum lipid metabolism and immune activity in breast cancer patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy
Authors
Wataru Goto
Shinichiro Kashiwagi
Koji Takada
Yuka Asano
Kana Ogisawa
Tamami Morisaki
Masatsune Shibutani
Hiroaki Tanaka
Kiyoshi Maeda
Publication date
01-12-2023
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
European Journal of Medical Research / Issue 1/2023
Electronic ISSN: 2047-783X
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s40001-022-00964-w

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