Clinical Implications of TβRII Expression in Breast Cancer

Objective To explore the relationship between T beta RII [type II TGF beta (transforming growth factor beta) receptor] expression and clinicopathological characteristics, and to evaluate the prognostic significance of T beta RII expression in breast cancer. Methods Clinicopathological data and prognostic information of 108 patients with histologically confirmed breast cancer who were surgically treated at China Medical University between January 2007 and September 2008 were reviewed and the association between the clinicopathological characteristics and T beta RII expression was analyzed by chi-square test and multivariate analysis. The expression of T beta RII was assessed by immunohistochemistry. Results Of the 108 patients, 60 cases were T beta RII positive and 48 cases were negative. There was no significant association between T beta RII expression of the patients older than 40 years and that of the younger than 40 years (56.0% vs 50.0%; P = 0.742). The T beta RII expression rate was significantly increased in patients with lymph node metastasis compared to those without lymph node metastasis (67.40% vs 46.8%; P = 0.033). Statistically significant relationships were found between increasing tumor clinical stage and high T beta RII expression (P = 0.011). T beta RII expression was not associated with the expression of ER(estrogen receptor). PR, (progesterone receptor). Her-2 (human epidermal growth factor receptor 2) (P = 0.925, P = 0.861, and P = 0.840, respectively). Patients with high T beta RII expression showed poorer 5-year disease-free survival (DFS) compared to those with low expression (66.7% vs 45.6%; P = 0.028) by univariate analysis. Survival analysis demonstrated that T beta RII was associated with poor DFS (P = 0.011). Subgroup analysis revealed that T beta RII expression was associated with shorter DFS in patients with lymph node metastasis, ER-positive, PR-positive or Her-2-negative tumors (P = 0.006, P = 0.016, P = 0.022, and P = 0.033, respectively). Cox regression analysis revealed that high T beta RII expression was related to poor 5-year DFS, and it was an independent factor for predicting the poor outcome for breast cancer patients (P = 0.016). Conclusions High levels of T beta RII expression were associated with lymph node metastasis, increasing tumor clinical stage, and poorer 5-year DFS in patients with breast cancer. T beta RII may be a potential prognostic marker for breast cancer.