Hepatocyte growth factor pathway expression in breast cancer by race and subtype

Abstract

Background African American women have the highest risk of breast cancer mortality compared to other racial groups. Differences in tumor characteristics have been implicated as a possible cause; however, the tumor microenvironment may also contribute to this disparity in mortality. Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is a stroma-derived marker of the tumor microenvironment that may affect tumor progression differentially by race. Objective To examine whether an HGF gene expression signature is differentially expressed by race and tumor characteristics. Methods Invasive breast tumors from 1957 patients were assessed for a 38-gene RNA-based HGF gene expression signature. Participants were black (n = 1033) and non-black (n = 924) women from the population-based Carolina Breast Cancer Study (1993–2013). Generalized linear models were used to estimate the relative frequency differences (RFD) in HGF status by race, clinical, and demographic factors. Results Thirty-two percent of tumors were positive for the HGF signature. Black women were more likely [42% vs. 21%; RFD = + 19.93% (95% CI 16.00, 23.87)] to have HGF-positive tumors compared to non-black women. Triple-negative patients had a higher frequency of HGF positivity [82% vs. 13% in non-triple-negative; RFD = + 65.85% (95% CI 61.71, 69.98)], and HGF positivity was a defining feature of basal-like subtype [92% vs. 8% in non-basal; RFD = + 81.84% (95% CI 78.84, 84.83)]. HGF positivity was associated with younger age, stage, higher grade, and high genomic risk of recurrence (ROR-PT) score. Conclusion HGF expression is a defining feature of basal-like tumors, and its association with black race and young women suggests it may be a candidate pathway for understanding breast cancer disparities.

Establishment and verification of a nomogram to predict tumor-specific mortality risk in triple-negative breast cancer: a competing risk model based on the SEER cohort study

“…Previous studies have reported that differences existed in the incidence and prognosis of breast cancer among patients of different ethnicities, which might be due to the differences in patients’ economic conditions, living environment, genomics, and epigenetics ( 38 , 39 ). Our study also found that the risk of CSM was higher in the Black race in comparison with the White.…”

Socio-demographic Antecedents, Intrapersonal factors and Patient Delay among Breast Cancer Cases in Punjab Province

“…In Pakistan, the survival rate of the breast cancer patients is very low and an increase in the mortality rate of these patients is also observed. As per one of the researches 13 , the delayed presentation of women in Pakistan is an outcome of the poor knowledge of the disease, lack of time due to overburden of the responsibilities on women, lack of exposure and disbelief 14 . Fear, denial of the risk of disease, shyness, poor self-efficacy was among the other individual factors revealed by another research in this context 15 .…”