Evaluation of Serum Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) in Correlation to Circulating Tumor Cells in Patients with Metastatic Breast Cancer

Overview

Journal Sci Rep

Specialty Science

Date 2017 Dec 13

PMID 29229933

Citations 7

Authors

Malgorzata Banys-Paluchowski

Isabell Witzel

Sabine Riethdorf

Brigitte Rack

Wolfgang Janni

Peter A Fasching

Erich-Franz Solomayer

Bahriye Aktas

Sabine Kasimir-Bauer

Klaus Pantel

Tanja Fehm

Volkmar Muller

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Overexpression of epidermal growth factor receptor in breast cancer is associated with estrogen receptor negativity, higher histological grade and larger tumors. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the clinical significance of serum EGFR (sEGFR) in relation to circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in metastatic breast cancer. 252 patients were enrolled in this prospective multicentre study. Blood was drawn before start of a new line of therapy. sEGFR was determined using a sandwich-type ELISA. CTCs were detected using CellSearch. sEGFR was determined in 48 healthy controls and 252 patients, with no significant differences between the two groups. Clinical-pathological parameters did not correlate with sEGFR, irrespective of the cutoff chosen. Patients with sEGFR levels above the 50 and 75 percentile were more likely to present with <5 CTCs per 7.5 ml blood (p = 0.007; p = 0.003). Patients with sEGFR ≥73 ng/ml had significantly longer overall survival than those with sEGFR <73 ng/ml (19.7 vs. 15.2 months; p = 0.007). In the multivariate analysis, presence of ≥5 CTCs, higher grading and higher line of therapy remained independent predictors of shorter OS, while only higher line of therapy and presence of ≥5 CTCs were independent predictors of shorter PFS.

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