Plasma cytokine profiles in breast cancer patients and their association with therapeutic response in Peru: a prospective cohort study.
Source: PubMed, NCBI / U.S. National Library of Medicine
Breast cancer (BC) is the most common malignant neoplasm in women worldwide and in Peru. Beyond hormonal and genetic factors, cytokines play a key role in tumor aggressiveness and therapeutic resistance. However, evidence on circulating cytokine profiles in Latin American populations is limited. We aimed to characterize the plasma cytokine profile in Peruvian women with BC and evaluate its association with molecular subtypes and treatment response. A prospective cohort study was conducted. We included 88 BC patients with clinical stage II-III, who were diagnosed at three different cancer centers in Peru: Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Neoplásicas (INEN, Lima-Peru), Instituto Regional de Enfermedades Neoplásicas del Norte (IREN-NORTE, Trujillo-Peru), and Instituto Regional de Enfermedades Neoplásicas del Sur (IREN-SUR, Arequipa-Peru). Plasma samples were obtained prior to any treatment being administered and underwent analysis using the Bio-Plex Pro™ Human Cytokine 48-Plex Screening Panel kit. Poisson regression models were used to evaluate the association between cytokine levels and complete pathological response (pCR) and clinical response. Cytokine concentration differences in MIP-1β, IL-9, GRO-α, and TNF-β were observed between BC molecular subtypes. Furthermore, lower levels of circulating FGF BASIC appear necessary to increase the relative risk of achieving pCR (RR = 0.9779; 95% CI 0.9573-0.9989; p=0.0392). Decreased
Abstract
Breast cancer (BC) is the most common malignant neoplasm in women worldwide and in Peru. Beyond hormonal and genetic factors, cytokines play a key role in tumor aggressiveness and therapeutic resistance. However, evidence on circulating cytokine profiles in Latin American populations is limited. We aimed to characterize the plasma cytokine profile in Peruvian women with BC and evaluate its association with molecular subtypes and treatment response. A prospective cohort study was conducted. We included 88 BC patients with clinical stage II-III, who were diagnosed at three different cancer centers in Peru: Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Neoplásicas (INEN, Lima-Peru), Instituto Regional de Enfermedades Neoplásicas del Norte (IREN-NORTE, Trujillo-Peru), and Instituto Regional de Enfermedades Neoplásicas del Sur (IREN-SUR, Arequipa-Peru). Plasma samples were obtained prior to any treatment being administered and underwent analysis using the Bio-Plex Pro™ Human Cytokine 48-Plex Screening Panel kit. Poisson regression models were used to evaluate the association between cytokine levels and complete pathological response (pCR) and clinical response. Cytokine concentration differences in MIP-1β, IL-9, GRO-α, and TNF-β were observed between BC molecular subtypes. Furthermore, lower levels of circulating FGF BASIC appear necessary to increase the relative risk of achieving pCR (RR = 0.9779; 95% CI 0.9573-0.9989; p=0.0392). Decreased levels of FGF BASIC, PDGF BB, SDF-1, IL-12 P40, and IL-8 were also found to be related to an increased chance of clinical responses to treatments. Multivariable analyses indicated that only FGF-BASIC, PDGF-BB, and IL-12 P40 remained independently associated with clinical response. Our study identified plasma cytokines linked to BC subtypes and treatment response in a Peruvian cohort. FGF-BASIC consistently demonstrated a significant association with both pCR and clinical response.