Predictive Role of EGFR, IGF-1R, VEGFR2 and HIF-1α Expression on Survival of Patients with Triple-negative Breast Cancer

Background: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) carries a poor prognosisand therapeutic options are limited to date. The aim of this study was to investigateto what extent the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), vascular endothelialgrowth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR2), hypoxia inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF-1α)and insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor (IGF-1R) are expressed in TNBC and todetermine if these expressions have a predictive role.Methods: Of 923 breast cancer patients who were treated and followed inAcademic Center for Education, Culture and Research (ACECR) from 2006-2010, 104 of them had TNBC. Immunohistochemistry analyses were performedon tissue microarray blocks with antibodies for EGFR, VEGFR2, HIF-1α andIGF-1R.Results: We analyzed tumor samples from 104 patients with classic primaryinvasive ductal carcinoma (IDC). Fifteen patients (14%) were in stage I, 46.6%instage II, 30.1% in stage III and 5.8% in a metastatic stage (stage IV). The medianoverall survival (OS)was 48months. EGFRwas expressed in 15 (14%),VEGFR2in 63 (61%), IGF-1R in 81 (78%) and HIF-1α in 57 (55%) samples. EGFRexpression was significantly associated with poor outcome in terms of OS (P =0.021,OR = 3.9).Conclusions: Among the four investigated tumor markers, only EGFR wassignificantly associatedwith survival of patientswithTNBC.

Predictive Role of EGFR, IGF-1R, VEGFR2 and HIF-1α Expression on Survival of Patients with Triple-negative Breast Cancer Keywords:

EGFR , VEGFR2 , HIF-1α , IGF1-R , triple negative breast cancer , overall survival