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Open Access 01-12-2014 | Research article

Gross cystic disease fluid protein 15 (GCDFP-15) expression in breast cancer subtypes

Authors: Silvia Darb-Esfahani, Gunter von Minckwitz, Carsten Denkert, Beyhan Ataseven, Bernhard Högel, Keyur Mehta, Gabriele Kaltenecker, Thomas Rüdiger, Berit Pfitzner, Kornelia Kittel, Bettina Fiedler, Klaus Baumann, Roland Moll, Manfred Dietel, Holger Eidtmann, Christoph Thomssen, Sibylle Loibl

Published in: BMC Cancer | Issue 1/2014

Abstract

Background

Gross cystic disease fluid protein 15 (GCDFP-15), which is regulated by the androgen receptor (AR), is a diagnostic marker for mammary differentiation in histopathology. We determined the expression of GCDFP-15 in breast cancer subtypes, its potential prognostic and predictive value, as well as its relationship to AR expression.

Methods

602 pre-therapeutic breast cancer core biopsies from the phase III randomized neoadjuvant GeparTrio trial (NCT00544765) were investigated for GCDFP-15 expression by immunohistochemistry. Expression data were correlated with disease-free (DFS) and overall survival (OS) time as well as pathological complete response (pCR) to neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

Results

239 tumors (39.7%) were GCDFP-15 positive. GCDFP-15 expression was positively linked to hormone receptor (HR) and HER2 positive tumor type, while most triple negative carcinomas were negative (p < 0.0001). GCDFP-15 was also strongly correlated to AR expression (p 0.001), and to the so-called molecular apocrine subtype (HR-/AR+, p < 0.0001). Higher rates of GCDFP-15 positivity were seen in tumors of lower grade (<0.0001) and negative nodal status (p = 0.008). GCDFP-15 positive tumors tended to have a more favourable prognosis than GCDFP-15 negative tumors (DFS (p = 0.052) and OS (p = 0.044)), which was not independent from other factors in multivariate analysis. GCDFP-15 expression was not linked to pCR. Histological apocrine differentiation was frequent in molecular apocrine carcinomas (60.7%), and was associated with GCDFP-15 within this group (p = 0.039).

Conclusions

GCDFP-15 expression is higher in tumors with favorable prognostic features. GCDFP-15 expression is further a frequent feature of AR positive tumors and the molecular apocrine subtype. It might have reduced sensitivity as a diagnostic marker for mammary differentiation in triple negative tumors as compared to HR or HER2 positive tumor types.

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The pre-publication history for this paper can be accessed here:http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2407/14/546/prepub

Title: Gross cystic disease fluid protein 15 (GCDFP-15) expression in breast cancer subtypes
Authors: Silvia Darb-Esfahani
Gunter von Minckwitz
Carsten Denkert
Beyhan Ataseven
Bernhard Högel
Keyur Mehta
Gabriele Kaltenecker
Thomas Rüdiger
Berit Pfitzner
Kornelia Kittel
Bettina Fiedler
Klaus Baumann
Roland Moll
Manfred Dietel
Holger Eidtmann
Christoph Thomssen
Sibylle Loibl
Publication date: 01-12-2014
Publisher: BioMed Central
Published in: BMC Cancer / Issue 1/2014
Electronic ISSN: 1471-2407
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2407-14-546

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