Title: Effects of systemic inflammation on relapse in early breast cancer.

Authors: McAndrew, Nicholas P; Bottalico, Lisa; Mesaros, Clementina; Blair, Ian A; Tsao, Patricia Y; Rosado, Jennifer M; Ganguly, Tapan; Song, Sarah J; Gimotty, Phyllis A; Mao, Jun J; DeMichele, Angela

Published In NPJ Breast Cancer, (2021 Jan 22)

Abstract: Chronic inflammation has been a proposed mechanism of resistance to aromatase inhibitors in breast cancer. Stratifying by HER2 status, a matched case-control study from the Wellness After Breast Cancer-II cohort was performed to assess whether or not elevated serum inflammatory biomarkers (C-Reactive protein [CRP], interleukin-6 [IL-6], and serum amyloid A [SAA]) and/or the presence of a high-risk IL-6 promoter genotype were associated with recurrence of hormone receptor positive (HR+) early breast cancer. Estrogen levels were also measured and correlated with biomarkers and disease outcomes. CRP and SAA were significantly associated with an increased risk of recurrence in the HR+/HER2- group, but not the HR+/HER2+ group. Mean serum estrogen levels were non-significantly elevated in patients who relapsed vs. non-relapsed patients. Surprisingly, high-risk IL-6 promoter polymorphisms were strongly associated with HER2+ breast cancer relapse, which has potential therapeutic implications, as elevated intracellular IL-6 has been associated with trastuzumab resistance in pre-clinical models.

PubMed ID: 33483516

MeSH Terms: No MeSH terms associated with this publication