Abstract
BackgroundNerve growth factor (NGF) is a neurotrophin and has been suggested to induce heme oxygenase-1 (HO1) expression. Although the role of HO1 in tumorigenesis remains controversial, recent evidence suggests NGF and HO1 as tumor-progressing factors. However, the correlative role of NGF and HO1 and their prognostic impact in breast carcinoma is unknown.MethodsWe investigated the expression and prognostic significance of the expression of NGF and HO1 in 145 cases of breast carcinoma.ResultsImmunohistochemical expression of NGF and HO1 was observed in 31% and 49% of breast carcinoma, respectively. The expression of NGF and HO1 significantly associated with each other, and both have a significant association with histologic grade, HER2 expression, and latent distant metastasis. The expression of NGF and HO1 predicted shorter overall survival of breast carcinoma by univariate and multivariate analysis. NGF expression was an independent prognostic indicator for relapse-free survival by multivariate analysis. The combined expression pattern of NGF and HO1 was also an independent prognostic indicator of overall survival and relapse-free survival. The patients with tumors expressing NGF had the shortest survival and the patients with tumor, which did not express NGF or HO1 showed the longest survival time.ConclusionsThis study has demonstrated that individual expression of NGF or HO1, and the combined NGF/HO1 expression pattern could be prognostic indicators for breast carcinoma patients.
Highlights
Nerve growth factor (NGF) is a neurotrophin and has been suggested to induce heme oxygenase-1 (HO1) expression
The patients with NGF expression had a 4.674-fold greater risk of death (P < 0.001) and its expression significantly associated with shorter relapse-free survival (RFS) (P < 0.001, Hazard ratio (HR); 3.550, 95% Confidence interval (CI); 2.074-6.076)
In summary, the results of this study have shown that the expression of NGF and HO1 were significantly associated with each other and that the expression of both of them significantly correlated with unfavorable clinicopathological factors and predicted shorter survival of breast carcinoma (BRCA) patients
Summary
Nerve growth factor (NGF) is a neurotrophin and has been suggested to induce heme oxygenase-1 (HO1) expression. The role of HO1 in tumorigenesis remains controversial, recent evidence suggests NGF and HO1 as tumor-progressing factors. Nerve growth factor (NGF) is a neurotrophin, which shows neurotrophic activity on central and peripheral neuronal cells, and exerts variable effects on non-neuronal cells [1]. Increased expression of HO1 in malignant tissue compared with normal tissue has been reported in various human malignant tumors, such as prostate cancer [16], oral squamous cell carcinoma [17], and lung cancers [18,19]. HO1 expression is associated with favorable prognosis of colorectal cancer patients [20] and low risk of lymph node metastasis in oral squamous cell carcinoma [21]. The role of HO1 in human malignant tumors still remains controversial
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