Oncotarget

Research Papers:

The relationship between total and phosphorylated STAT1 and STAT3 tumour cell expression, components of tumour microenvironment and survival in patients with invasive ductal breast cancer

Fadia J.A. Gujam _, Donald C. McMillan and Joanne Edwards

PDF  |  HTML  |  How to cite

Oncotarget. 2016; 7:77607-77621. https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.12730

Metrics: PDF 1759 views  |   HTML 3486 views  |   ?  


Abstract

Fadia J.A. Gujam1,2, Donald C. McMillan1, Joanne Edwards2

1Academic Unit of Surgery, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences-University of Glasgow, Royal Infirmary, Glasgow, Scotland

2Unit of Experimental Therapeutics, Institute of Cancer, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences-University of Glasgow, Wolfson Wohl Cancer Research Centre, Glasgow, Scotland

Correspondence to:

Fadia J.A. Gujam, email: [email protected]

Keywords: breast cancer, STAT1, STAT3, tumour microenvironment and survival

Received: June 16, 2016    Accepted: October 03, 2016    Published: October 18, 2016

ABSTRACT

The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between tumour cell expression of total and phosphorylated STAT1 (ph-STAT1) and STAT3 (ph-STAT-3), components of tumour microenvironment and survival in patients with invasive ductal breast cancer.

Immunohistochemical analysis of total and ph-STAT1, and STAT3 were performed on tissue microarray of 384 breast cancer specimens. Tumour cell expression of STAT1 and STAT3 at both cytoplasmic and nuclear locations were combined and identified as STAT1/STAT3 tumour cell expression. These results were related to cancer specific survival (CSS) and phenotypic features of the tumour and the host.

High ph-STAT1 and ph-STAT3 tumour cell expression were associated with increased ER (both P≤0.001) and PR (both P <0.05), reduced tumour grade (P=0.015 and P<0.001 respectively) and necrosis (both P=0.001). Ph-STAT1 was associated with increased general inflammatory infiltrate (P=0.007) and ph-STAT3 was associated with lower CD4+ infiltration (P=0.024). In multivariate survival analysis, only high ph-STAT3 tumour cell expression was a predictor of improved CSS (P=0.010) independent of other tumour and host-based factors.

STAT1 and STAT3 tumour cell expression appeared to be an important determinant of favourable outcome in patients with invasive ductal breast cancer. The present results suggest that STAT1 and STAT3 may affect disease outcome through direct impact on tumour cells, counteracting aggressive tumour features, as well as interaction with the surrounding microenvironment.


Creative Commons License All site content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
PII: 12730