Abstract
Purpose: Adjuvant therapy has become an integral component of the management of primary high-risk breast cancer patients. However, a considerable fraction of women receive no benefit from this treatment. This study investigates whether a number of biopathological factors can influence the outcome of patients submitted to adjuvant chemotherapy involving the use of high-dose epirubicin and cyclophosphamide. Methods: One hundred and fifty-seven primary breast cancer patients, considered at high risk according to the St. Gallen Meeting Consensus Conference, were evaluated immunohistochemically for estrogen, progesterone receptors, p53, bcl-2, HER-2/neu, and Ki-67, of which the results were correlated with patient outcome. Results: Results obtained demonstrated that p53 is a significant predictor of disease-free survival (DFS P < 0.0001) and overall survival (OS P=0.0002) both in ductal and lobular carcinomas, whereas bcl-2 expression seems to be of prognostic value only in lobular carcinomas (DFS P=0.01; OS P=0.02). Conclusions: This data indicates that in high-risk breast cancer patients the immunohistochemical evaluation of p53 and bcl-2 may be of clinical value in distinguishing different responses to adjuvant anthracycline-based chemotherapy.
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Received: 4 October 1999 / Accepted: 10 April 2000
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Mottolese, M., Benevolo, M., Del Monte, G. et al. Role of P53 and BCL-2 in high-risk breast cancer patients treated with adjuvant anthracycline-based chemotherapy. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol 126, 722–729 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/PL00008478
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/PL00008478