Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Expression of ghrelin is correlated to a favorable outcome in invasive breast cancer

Gronberg, Malin ; Fjallskog, Marie-Louise ; Jirström, Karin LU orcid and Janson, Eva T. (2012) In Acta Oncologica 51(3). p.386-393
Abstract
Background. Expression of the peptide hormones ghrelin and obestatin has previously been demonstrated in human mammary glands. However, the clinical implications of the expression of these peptides in breast cancer are unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential clinical value of ghrelin and obestatin as breast cancer biomarkers. Methods. A tissue microarray containing breast cancer specimens from 144 patients was immunostained with antibodies directed towards ghrelin and obestatin. Using varying cut-offs, the expression of the two peptides was evaluated and correlated to previously known prognostic factors in breast cancer and to the outcome. Cox regression analysis was used to assess whether these markers may predict... (More)
Background. Expression of the peptide hormones ghrelin and obestatin has previously been demonstrated in human mammary glands. However, the clinical implications of the expression of these peptides in breast cancer are unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential clinical value of ghrelin and obestatin as breast cancer biomarkers. Methods. A tissue microarray containing breast cancer specimens from 144 patients was immunostained with antibodies directed towards ghrelin and obestatin. Using varying cut-offs, the expression of the two peptides was evaluated and correlated to previously known prognostic factors in breast cancer and to the outcome. Cox regression analysis was used to assess whether these markers may predict survival of breast cancer patients. Results. Moderate to strong immunoreactivity for ghrelin and obestatin was observed in 71.5% and 77.1% of the cases, respectively. Ghrelin and obestatin expression was significantly but weakly correlated to low histological grade, estrogen receptor positivity, small tumor size and low proliferation. Only ghrelin expression was significantly correlated to better recurrence-free and breast cancer-specific survival (HR = 0.3-0.4, p = 0.02-0.05) in both uni- and multivariate analyses. The optimal cut-off was any ghrelin expression versus none. Reproducibility between the two readers was very good for both stainings with kappa values of 0.94-1.00. Conclusions. Patients with tumors expressing ghrelin had 2.5-3 times lower risk for recurrence or breast cancer death than those lacking ghrelin expression. Ghrelin expression is easily assessable with high reproducibility using immunohistochemistry. Further investigations are needed to establish the clinical significance of ghrelin as a biomarker in breast cancer. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Acta Oncologica
volume
51
issue
3
pages
386 - 393
publisher
Taylor & Francis
external identifiers
  • wos:000302731800014
  • scopus:84859746019
  • pmid:22067021
ISSN
1651-226X
DOI
10.3109/0284186X.2011.631576
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
The information about affiliations in this record was updated in December 2015. The record was previously connected to the following departments: Pathology, (Lund) (013030000)
id
fd1093a9-b0c9-4b6e-8e0a-7672a29e610a (old id 2571232)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 14:30:28
date last changed
2024-01-29 02:52:48
@article{fd1093a9-b0c9-4b6e-8e0a-7672a29e610a,
  abstract     = {{Background. Expression of the peptide hormones ghrelin and obestatin has previously been demonstrated in human mammary glands. However, the clinical implications of the expression of these peptides in breast cancer are unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential clinical value of ghrelin and obestatin as breast cancer biomarkers. Methods. A tissue microarray containing breast cancer specimens from 144 patients was immunostained with antibodies directed towards ghrelin and obestatin. Using varying cut-offs, the expression of the two peptides was evaluated and correlated to previously known prognostic factors in breast cancer and to the outcome. Cox regression analysis was used to assess whether these markers may predict survival of breast cancer patients. Results. Moderate to strong immunoreactivity for ghrelin and obestatin was observed in 71.5% and 77.1% of the cases, respectively. Ghrelin and obestatin expression was significantly but weakly correlated to low histological grade, estrogen receptor positivity, small tumor size and low proliferation. Only ghrelin expression was significantly correlated to better recurrence-free and breast cancer-specific survival (HR = 0.3-0.4, p = 0.02-0.05) in both uni- and multivariate analyses. The optimal cut-off was any ghrelin expression versus none. Reproducibility between the two readers was very good for both stainings with kappa values of 0.94-1.00. Conclusions. Patients with tumors expressing ghrelin had 2.5-3 times lower risk for recurrence or breast cancer death than those lacking ghrelin expression. Ghrelin expression is easily assessable with high reproducibility using immunohistochemistry. Further investigations are needed to establish the clinical significance of ghrelin as a biomarker in breast cancer.}},
  author       = {{Gronberg, Malin and Fjallskog, Marie-Louise and Jirström, Karin and Janson, Eva T.}},
  issn         = {{1651-226X}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{3}},
  pages        = {{386--393}},
  publisher    = {{Taylor & Francis}},
  series       = {{Acta Oncologica}},
  title        = {{Expression of ghrelin is correlated to a favorable outcome in invasive breast cancer}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/0284186X.2011.631576}},
  doi          = {{10.3109/0284186X.2011.631576}},
  volume       = {{51}},
  year         = {{2012}},
}