Recurrent triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) tissues contain a higher amount of phosphatidylcholine (32:1) than non-recurrent TNBC tissues

PLoS One. 2017 Aug 23;12(8):e0183724. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0183724. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is one of the breast cancer subtype that displays a high risk of early recurrence and short overall survival. Improvement of the prognosis of patients with TNBC requires identifying a predictive factor of recurrence, which would make it possible to provide beneficial personalized treatment. However, no clinically reliable predictive factor is currently known. In this study, we investigated the predictive factor of recurrence in TNBC using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-imaging mass spectrometry for lipid profiling of breast cancer specimens obtained from three and six patients with recurrent and non-recurrent TNBC, respectively. The signal for phosphatidylcholine (PC) (32:1) at m/z 732.5 was significantly higher in the recurrence group compared to the non-recurrence group (P = 0.024). PC (32:1) was more abundant in the cancer epithelial area than it was in the surrounding stroma, suggesting that abnormal lipid metabolism was associated with malignant transformation. Our results indicate PC (32:1) as a candidate predictive factor of TNBC recurrence. A future prospective study investigating whether personalized therapy based on PC (32:1) intensity improves the prognosis of patients with TNBC is recommended.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Middle Aged
  • Phosphatidylcholines / metabolism*
  • Prognosis
  • Recurrence
  • Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization
  • Triple Negative Breast Neoplasms / metabolism*
  • Triple Negative Breast Neoplasms / pathology

Substances

  • Phosphatidylcholines

Grants and funding

This work was supported by MEXT/JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP15H05898B1, Imaging Platform Grant Number 967, and Advanced Research and Development Programs for Medical Innovation (CREST) from Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development, AMED Grant Number 921910520 to M. Setou. The funders had no role in study design, data collection, analysis, and preparation of the manuscript.