Research Paper

Stromal caveolin-1 levels predict early DCIS progression to invasive breast cancer

Volume 8, Issue 11   June 1, 2009
Pages 1071 - 1079
http://dx.doi.org/10.4161/cbt.8.11.8874
Authors: Agnieszka K. Witkiewicz, Abhijit Dasgupta, Katherine Nguyen, Chengbao Liu, Albert J. Kovatich, Gordon F. Schwartz, Richard G. Pestell, Federica Sotgia, Hallgeir Rui and Michael P. Lisanti

View affiliations

Preview



Abstract:

Here, we determined the possible association of stromal caveolin-1 (Cav-1) levels with  
DCIS recurrence and/or progression to invasive breast cancer.  An initial cohort of 78
DCIS  patients with follow-up data was examined. As ER-positivity was associated with
recurrence, we focused our analysis on this subset of 56 patients. In this group, we
observed that DCIS progressed to invasive breast cancer in ~14% of the patient
population (8/56), in accordance with an expected progression rate of 12-15%. Nearly
ninety percent of DCIS patients  (7/8) that underwent recurrence to invasive breast cancer
had reduced or absent levels of stromal Cav-1. Remarkably, an absence of stromal Cav-1 
(score = 0) was specifically associated with early disease progression to invasive breast
cancer, with reduced time to recurrence and higher recurrence rate. All DCIS patients
with an absence of stromal Cav-1 underwent some form of recurrence (5/5) and the
majority (4/5) underwent progression to invasive breast cancer. This represents an overall
cumulative incidence rate of 100% for recurrence and 80% for progression. An absence
of stromal Cav-1 in DCIS lesions was also specifically associated with the presence of
inflammatory cells. Conversely, ninety-seven percent of ER(+) DCIS patients (35/36)
with high levels of stromal Cav-1 (score = 2) did not show any invasive recurrence over
the duration of follow-up (4-208 months), and 89% of such patients are estimated to
remain free of invasive recurrence, even after 15 years. Thus, determination of stromal
Cav-1 levels may be a useful new biomarker for guiding the treatment of ER(+) DCIS
patients.

Advertisements