Elsevier

Annals of Oncology

Volume 25, Issue 10, October 2014, Pages 1973-1979
Annals of Oncology

original articles
breast tumors
Activated PI3K/AKT and MAPK pathways are potential good prognostic markers in node-positive, triple-negative breast cancer

https://doi.org/10.1093/annonc/mdu247Get rights and content
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ABSTRACT

Background

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients are a poor prognostic subgroup, and currently, there is no biomarker for targeted therapy.

Patients and methods

Tissue samples were obtained from 75 TNBC patients with lymph-node metastases who had received adjuvant chemotherapy. We examined 11 biomarkers, including PIK3CA and AKT1mutation, with regard to event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS) of patients.

Results

In the tumor tissues, phospho-AKT (pAKT) expression was significantly related to HER4 expression. Expression of each of these biomarkers was significantly related to longer EFS (P = 0.024 and 0.03, respectively). pERK expression was also a good prognostic factor regarding EFS and OS in TNBC (P = 0.002 and 0.006, respectively). We also identified a correlation between epidermal growth factor receptor positivity and insulin-like growth factor receptor type 1 positivity (P = 0.001). pERK and T-stage (1–3 versus >3) were independent good prognostic factors by multivariate analysis.

Conclusions

We determined that tumors expressing pAKT or pERK are a good prognostic subtype in node-positive TNBC. Different targeted therapies may be necessary for TNBC that involves activation of PI3K/AKT or MAPK pathways.

Key words

biomarkers
MAPK
HER4:PI3K
prognosis
triple-negative breast cancer

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