Circulating proteins as predictive and prognostic biomarkers in breast cancer

Veyssière, Hugo; Bidet, Yannick; Penault-Llorca, Frederique; Radosevic-Robin, Nina; Durando, Xavier

doi:10.1186/s12014-022-09362-0

Clinical Proteomics

Table 1 Studies of interest presenting tumoral circulating proteins in plasma and serum of patients with breast cancer

From: Circulating proteins as predictive and prognostic biomarkers in breast cancer

Protein	Function	Studied population	Number of patients	Clinical association with elevated blood levels	Refs
VEGF	Angiogenesis factor	BC	44	Poor disease progression and late clinical stages	[96]
		Metastatic BC	253	Poor clinical outcome and poor overall survival	[75]
		TNBC	21	At baseline, associated with a good overall survival (10.2 months vs 4.2 months in the low levels group)	[99]
		TNBC, non-TNBC and healthy participants	43 (TNBC) 53 (non-TNBC) 20 (healthy participants)	Worse response to NAC, metastasis and a poorer OS (median OS around 22 months)	[63]
		TNBC	303	Unfavourable outcome (3-year DFS of 53% vs 85% with low serum VEGF levels)	[100]
TGF β	Cytokine controlling proliferation	BC and healthy particpants	44	Advanced stages	[61]
		BC	60	Advanced stages	[62]
		TNBC	43	High incidence of metastasis, relapse, and poor response to NAC	[63]
		TNBC	48	TGF-β-related proteins were associated with TNBC tumour progression and poor outcomes	[64]
		oesophageal adenocarcinoma	NA	TGF-β serum levels in metastatic patients were significantly higher compared to patients with non-metastatic disease	[65]
MMP9	Endopeptidase involved in the degradation of extracellular matrix	BC and benign breast disease	77 (BC) 10 (benign)	Higher in the breast cancer group compared to the benign tumour group	[91]
		Metastatic BC and BC	88 (M +) 160 (M0)	Prognostic factor	[72]
		TNBC	303	High levels correlated with a decrease in pCR rate and a poor response to NAC	[93]
HER2	Involved in the regulation of cell proliferation	BC	118	Elevated preoperative correlated with a worse prognosis	[69]
		HER2 + M + BC	537	Short PFS	[70]
		BC	64	Poor outcomes	[71]
		Metastatic BC and BC	88 (M +) 160 (M0)	Appearance of brain metastasis	[72]
TIMP-1	Matrix metalloproteinases inhibitor	Metastatic BC	253	Poor PFS and OS	[74]
		BC	60	Elevated serum levels associated with lower progression-free and OS rates	[76]
		HER2 + M + BC	472	TIMP-1 levels described as prognostic factor of shorter PFS	[70]
TIE1/2 and Ang-2	Promotes angiogenesis	BC and healthy participants	143 (BC) 100 (healthy patients)	Ang-2 was higher in BC than in the healthy group and was associated with a worse OS and metastasis	[106]
		BC and benign breast disease	127 (BC) 38 (benign breast disease)	Ang-2 was higher in BC than in the benign breast disease group	[107]
		M + BC	181	High Ang-2 levels at baseline associated with poor PFS. Both Ang-2 and serum Tie2 appeared as prognostic factors of poor OS	[108]
		M + BC	58	Good prognostic value, short median OS (around 20 months) and short median PFS	[109]
HP	Captures haemoglobin during haemolysis and inhibits oxidative activity	BC	6606	Poor clinical outcomes	[113]
		TNBC and healthy participants	41 (TNBC) 10 (healthy patients)	Poor prognosis and low survival rate	[114]
		TNBC and non-TNBC	30 (TNBC) 30 (non-TNBC)	High expression in TNBC group compared to non-TNBC group	[115]
CA15-3 and CEA	Prognostic markers for BC	TNBC	247	Elevated CEA and CA15-3 levels associated with short OS and DFS rates	[118]
CA15-3 and CEA	Prognostic markers for BC	TNBC	604	High risk of death	[119]
VE-cadherin	Plays a crucial role in endothelial adherens junction assembly and maintenance	BC	48	Predictive factor for recurrence	[83]
VE-cadherin		Hormone-resistant M + BC	141	Prognostic factor for both PFS and OS	[84]
HGF	Involved in morphogenesis, cell and tissue survival, and cellular growth	BC	134	Appearance of metastases	[78]
		BC	34	Poor prognosis and a high risk of progression	[79]
		BC	121	Metastasis	[80]
IGF-I and PDGF	Regulator of growth, survival, migration and invasion	TNBC, non-TNBC and healthy participants	43 (TNBC) 53 (non-TNBC) 20 (healthy participants)	Metastasis and recurrence	[63]
IGF-I and PDGF	Regulator of growth, survival, migration and invasion	BC	110	Associated with high serum PDGF levels, IGF-I may increase this risk of recurrence	[110]
LRP6N	Co-receptor for Wnt signal induction	BC	295	Diagnostic marker for the early detection of breast cancer metastasis	[77]
PD1/PDL1	Immune checkpoints	TNBC	66	Predictive factors of treatment response	[132]
		HER2 + M + BC	387	High serum PDL1 level before treatment strongly linked to longer OS in the lapatinib group compared to the trastuzumab group	[133]
		M + BC	208	Short PFS of metastatic breast cancer and a poor prognosis	[134]

Ang2: Angiopoietin 2, ApoC-I: Apolipoprotein I-C, BC: Breast cancer, CA15-3: Cancer antigen 15–3, CEA: Carcinoembryonic antigen, ELISA: Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, HER2: Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2, HGF: Hepatocyte growth factor, HP: Haptoglobin, IGF: Insulin-like growth factor, LRP6N: LRP6 ectodomain, MMP9: Matrix metalloproteinase 9, M + : metastatic, NAC: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy, OS: Overall survival, pCR: pathological complete response, PDGF: Platelet-derived growth factor, PD1: Programmed cell death protein 1, PDL1: Programme death ligand 1, PFS: Progression free survival, TGF β: Transforming growth factor β, Tie-1/2: Tyrosine kinase with immunoglobulin and epidermal growth factor-homology domains ½, TIMP-1: Tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase 1, TNBC: Triple negative breast cancer, VEGF: Vascular endothelial growth factor

Back to article page

ISSN: 1559-0275

Contact us

Submission enquiries: journalsubmissions@springernature.com