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Molecular Oncology, Markers, Clinical Correlates |
Department of Surgical Oncology, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka 565-0871, Japan
| ABSTRACT |
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Experimental Design: A case-control study was conducted on 71 cases (postmenopausal breast cancer patients) and 73 controls (postmenopausal healthy women). Serum E1 levels were examined in their association with breast cancer risk after adjustment for the various epidemiological risk factors. In addition, clinicopathological characteristics of breast cancers arising in the women with high E1 levels were investigated.
Results: Women in the high tertile of E1 levels had a significantly (P < 0.01) increased risk of breast cancer as compared with women in the low tertile [odds ratio (OR), 4.14; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.4411.87]. Subset analysis according to the ER status showed that women in the high tertile of E1 levels had a significantly increased risk for ER-positive breast cancer (OR, 23.79; 95% CI, 3.50161.59) but not for ER-negative breast cancer (OR, 1.45; 95% CI, 0.415.15) as compared with women in the low tertile. Tumor size and lymph node status were not significantly different between women in the high tertile and those in the intermediate and low tertiles. But the frequency of low-histological-grade tumors and ER-positive tumors (88 and 67%, respectively) showed a greater trend toward an increase (P = 0.06 and P = 0.07, respectively) in women in the high tertile than those (69 and 46%, respectively) in the intermediate and low tertiles. In addition, ER levels in ER-positive tumors were significantly (P < 0.05) higher in women in the high tertile (245.3 ± 37.1 fmol/mg protein) than those in the intermediate and low tertiles (134.0 ± 31.3 fmol/mg protein).
Conclusions: Postmenopausal women with high serum E1 levels have a significantly increased risk for ER-positive, but not ER-negative, breast cancer. Breast cancers arising in women with high E1 levels show a high ER positivity as well as high ER content. Measurement of serum E1 levels would be clinically useful in the selection of postmenopausal women who can benefit from prophylactic use of tamoxifen because tamoxifen can prevent ER-positive, but not ER-negative, breast cancer.
| INTRODUCTION |
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The impact of estrogens on breast cancer etiology has been well established. A positive association between the breast cancer risk and the reproductive factors such as early menarche, late menopause, nulliparity, and postmenopausal obesity seems to indicate that estrogens influence breast cancer risk (3 , 4) . In addition, evidence linking the circulating estrogen levels to breast cancer risk have also been reported both in the retrospective and in the prospective studies (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12) . Thus, the higher levels of estrogens as well as the longer time of estrogen exposure (high-estrogen milieu) are considered associated with the higher risk of breast cancer. It is speculated that a high-estrogen milieu would stimulate the development of ER-positive breast cancer rather than ER-negative breast cancer because estrogens stimulate the carcinogenesis and development of breast cancer through ER. This speculation seems to be supported by the fact that women with HRT are more likely to develop ER-positive breast cancer (13) . Thus, women with high levels of serum estrogens are speculated to be at high risk for ER-positive breast cancer. Although the several reports have demonstrated a significant association between the serum estrogens levels and breast cancer risk, no report has been available until now that has investigated the relationship between the serum estrogen levels and ER-positive breast cancer risk (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12) . Therefore, in the present study, we have studied the association of serum E1 and E2 levels with the ER-positive breast cancer risk in postmenopausal Japanese women by a case-control study. Clinicopathological characteristics of tumors developing in women with high estrogen levels have also been investigated.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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Serum E1 and E2 Analysis.
All of the blood samples were obtained at fasting early in the morning, immediately before surgery in cases or before breast examination in controls. The serum was immediately separated by centrifugation and stored at -20°C until use. Serum E1 and E2 levels were measured by radioimmunoassay without a prior separation step. Total E1 and E2 levels were assayed by using the kits provided by Diagnostic Systems Laboratories (DSL-8700; Webster, TX) and by CIS Biointernational (ESTR-US-CT; Cedex, France), respectively, following each manufacturers protocol. These assays were a two-step radioimmunoassay using a rabbit polyclonal antibody that is highly specific to E1 or E2. The cross-reactivity of E1 assay with E2 was 1.25% and that of E2 assay with E1 was 0.97%. All of the case and control samples were assayed in duplicate, and the mean value was used for the estrogens levels. The detection limits of E1 and E2 were 1.2 pg/ml and 1.5 pg/ml, respectively.
ER Assay.
ER levels in breast cancers were measured by enzyme immunoassay using the kit provided by Abbott Research Laboratories (Chicago, IL). The cutoff value for ER was defined as 13 fmol/mg protein according to the manufacturers instructions.
Statistical Analysis.
E1 and E2 levels in cases and controls were assessed by the Mann-Whitney test. The relationship between the serum estrogen levels and breast cancer risk was determined using a logistic regression method to obtain the OR and 95% CI, being adjusted for the other epidemiological risk factors such as age, family history, age at menarche, age at first live birth or nulliparity, age at menopause, and BMI. These risk factors were categorized as follows; family history of first-degree relatives (yes or no), menarche (≤12, 1314, and ≥15 years), parity (first live birth at ≤25, 2629, and ≥30 years, or nulliparity), menopause (≤46, 4750, and ≥51 years), and BMI (<21.0, 21.0 to <23.1, and ≥23.1 kg/m2). The association between serum E1 levels and clinicopathological characteristics of tumors was assessed using the
2 test. The ER concentrations in tumors were compared between the E1 high and low groups by the Mann-Whitney test. A P of <0.05 was considered significant.
| RESULTS |
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E1 levels (9.56 ± 0.71 pg/ml, mean ± SE) in cases were significantly (P < 0.005) higher than those (7.11 ± 0.52 pg/ml) in controls (Table 1)
. Subset analysis according to the ER status of tumors showed that E1 levels in cases with ER-positive tumors, but not in cases with ER-negative tumors, were significantly (P < 0.001) higher than those in controls (Table 1)
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| DISCUSSION |
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In addition to E1 levels, E2 levels have also been reported to be associated with an increased risk for breast cancer by several investigations in Western countries (10 , 12 , 16) . In the present study, we attempted to measure the serum E2 levels and to study their association with breast cancer risk, but the E2 levels were very low and undetectable in as many as approximately one-third of cases and controls. Our results on the serum E2 levels are essentially consistent with the report of Shimizu et al. (17) that serum E2 levels in postmenopausal Japanese women were significantly lower than those in Caucasian women. It is currently unknown, therefore, whether or not serum E2 levels are associated with ER-positive breast cancer risk, but this important issue should be investigated using a more sensitive method for an E2 assay in the future. We measured total E1 levels in the present study because all of the previous studies had measured total, but not free, E1 levels and had been able to show a significant association between total E1 levels and breast cancer risk (12 , 16) . Ideally, total E1 and E2 levels and free E1 and E2 levels, as well as SHBG levels, should have been measured in the present study but, because of the limited sample volume from each subject, all of these parameters were not measured and only total E1 and E2 levels were measured. Thus, the relationship of free E1 and SHBG levels with breast cancer risk in Japanese women also still remains to be established.
The Multiple Outcomes of Raloxifene Evaluation (MORE) Study has clearly revealed that women in the higher E2 levels have a significantly greater risk reduction rate with raloxifene, which is one of the selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs), compared with women in the lower E2 levels (18) . This observation is consistent with our present findings that women with high E1 levels are at an increased risk for developing ER-positive breast cancers, which can be prevented effectively by raloxifene. Thus, it is expected that tamoxifen also confers a greater benefit on women with high serum estrogens levels in terms of a risk reduction of breast cancer, suggesting the possibility that the serum estrogen level will be a clinically useful marker in the selection of women who can benefit from chemoprevention with tamoxifen.
The limitation of the present study lies in that this is not a prospective study and serum samples were obtained from cases with breast cancer. It is very unlikely, however, that higher E1 levels in breast cancer patients than controls are attributable to the enhanced estrogen production in tumor tissue because most cases had small tumors (stage I, 41%; stage II, 55%) and serum E1 levels were not associated with tumor size. It is also reported that the results of the retrospective studies and the prospective studies conducted in the Western countries are fairly consistent, suggesting that estrogen production in tumor tissue, if any, is very unlikely to influence the serum estrogen level. A study on the comparison of the serum estrogen levels in two samples from the same postmenopausal woman collected at least 1 year apart has shown that the estrogens levels are fairly stable over a long period (19) . These results seem to agree with the fact that results of the retrospective studies are mostly consistent with those of the prospective studies.
In conclusion, we have demonstrated that postmenopausal women with high serum E1 levels are significantly associated with an increased risk for ER-positive, but not ER-negative, breast cancer, and that breast cancers arising in women with high E1 levels show a high ER positivity as well as high ER content. These results seem to suggest a possibility that measurement of serum E1 levels would be clinically useful in the selection of postmenopausal women who can benefit from prophylactic use of tamoxifen.
| FOOTNOTES |
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1 Supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan. ![]()
2 To whom requests for reprints should be addressed, at Department of Surgical Oncology, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-2 Yamadaoka, Suita-shi, Osaka 565-0871, Japan. E-mail: noguchi{at}onsurg.med.osaka-u.ac.jp ![]()
3 Internet address: http://www.intouchlive.com/home/frames.htm?http://www.intouchlive.com/cancergenetics/gail.htm&3. ![]()
4 The abbreviations used are: ER, estrogen receptor; HRT, hormone replacement therapy; E1, estrone; E2, estradiol; OR, odds ratio; CI, confidence interval; BMI, body mass index; SHBG, sex hormone-binding globulin. ![]()
Received 12/ 9/02; revised 2/10/03; accepted 2/20/03.
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