Expression of Enhancer of Zeste Homolog 2 Correlates with Survival Outcome in Patients with Metastatic Breast Cancer: Exploratory Study Using Primary and Paired Metastatic Lesions

Overview

Journal BMC Cancer

Publisher Biomed Central

Specialty Oncology

Date 2017 Mar 1

PMID 28241804

Citations 14

Authors

Hitoshi Inari

Nobuyasu Suganuma

Kae Kawachi

Tatsuya Yoshida

Takashi Yamanaka

Yoshiyasu Nakamura

Mitsuyo Yoshihara

Hirotaka Nakayama

Ayumi Yamanaka

Katsuhiko Masudo

Takashi Oshima

Tomoyuki Yokose

Yasushi Rino

Satoru Shimizu

Yohei Miyagi

Munetaka Masuda

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: In metastatic breast cancer, the status of the estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), as well as the Ki-67 index sometimes change between primary and metastatic lesions. However, the change in expression levels of enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) between primary and metastatic lesions has not been determined in metastatic breast cancer.

Methods: Ninety-six metastatic breast cancer patients had biopsies or resections of metastatic lesions between September 1990 and February 2014 at the Kanagawa Cancer Center. We evaluated ER, PR, HER2, Ki-67, and EZH2 in primary lesions and their corresponding metastatic lesions using immunohistochemistry. We examined the change in expression of EZH2 between primary and metastatic lesions, the correlation between the expression of EZH2 and the expression of other biomarkers, and the relationship between EZH2 expression and patient outcome in metastatic breast cancer.

Results: EZH2 expression was significantly higher in metastatic lesions compared with primary lesions. EZH2 expression was highly correlated with Ki-67 expression in primary and metastatic lesions. High-level expression of EZH2 was associated with poorer disease-free survival (DFS) outcomes in patients with primary lesions (P < 0.001); however, high-level expression of EZH2 was not associated with poorer DFS outcomes in patients with metastatic lesions (P = 0.063). High-level expression of EZH2 was associated with poorer overall survival (OS) postoperatively in patients with primary (P = 0.001) or metastatic lesions (P = 0.005). High-level expression of EZH2 was associated with poorer OS outcomes after recurrence in patients with metastatic lesions (P = 0.014); however, high-level expression of EZH2 was not associated with poorer OS outcomes after recurrence in patients with primary lesions (P = 0.096). High-level expression of EZH2 in metastatic lesions was independently associated with poorer OS outcomes after recurrence.

Conclusions: EZH2 expression was significantly increased in metastatic lesions compared with primary lesions. High-level expression of EZH2 in metastatic lesions was associated with poorer OS outcomes after primary surgery and recurrence.

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