Expression of chemerin correlates with a poor prognosis in female breast cancer patients

Figures & data

Table 1 Demographic, clinical, and pathological characteristics of the female breast cancer patients

Variable	Patients (n=53)
Mean age (years)	51.79±11.975 (24–79)
Weight (kg)	74.28±11.45 (52–105)
Height (cm)	156.28±5.07
BMI (kg/m^2)	30.48±4.9157 (20.4–44.9)
Mean fasting glucose (mg/dL)	5.04±0.75 (3.33–6.67)
Hemoglobin (gm/dL)	13.6+1.3 (10.0–17.0)
Total leukocytes count (1,000 cells/mm^3)	6.502±1.8629 (4.1–10.3)
Neutrophils (1,000 cells/mm^3)	4.074±1.49 (1.6–7.1)
Lymphocytes (1,000 cells/mm^3)	2.136±0.6397 (0.6–3.7)
Platelets (1,000 platelets/mm^3)	302.43±95.74 (104–569)
Pathological diagnosis
Invasive ductal carcinoma	53 (100%)
Tumor surface area (cm^2)	10.591±7.3685 (1.0–30.0)
Lymph node (LN) metastases
Negative	7 (14%)
Positive	46 (86%)
Number of LN metastasis	14.47±7.3685 (0–30)
Distant metastasis (%)
Negative/positive	24/29 (45/55%)
Tumor grading
Grade I	0 (0%)
Grade II	43 (81.1%)
Grade III	10 (18.9%)

Note: Data shown as mean ± SD (range) or n (%).

Abbreviation:BMI, body mass index.

Figure 1 Chemerin expression in malignant vs normal breast tissues.

Figure 2 Chemerin expression in the metastatic lymph nodes vs malignant breast tissues.

Figure 3 Representative microphotographs of immunohistochemical analysis of chemerin antigen expression in human normal breast tissue and breast cancer tissue.

Notes:(A) No detectable chemerin antigen expression was observed in ductal cells of normal breast tissue. (B) Weak chemerin immune-reactivity was observed in the tumor cells of breast cancer tissue. (C) Intense and widespread chemerin immune-reactivity was observed in the cytoplasm of tumor cells. (D) Intense chemerin immune-reactivity was observed in the tumor cells infiltrating the regional lymph node. Original magnification, ×400.

Table 2 The chemerin expression and distribution in malignant vs benign breast tissue

Variable	Normal (53)	Malignant tissue (n=53)	P-value
Chemerin expression %
Low expression	71.4%	44%	0.001
Overexpression	28.6%	56%

Table 3 Associations of chemerin expression with clinical and pathological characteristics in women with breast cancer

Variable	Chemerin expression
	r	P
Age (years)	−0.059	0.673
Weight (kg)	0.256	0.04
Height (m)	−0.014	0.921
BMI (kg/m^2)	0.233	0.03
FBS (mmol/L)	0.106	0.450
Tumor size (cm)	0.235	0.031
LN metastasis	0.265	0.045
Distant metastasis	0.267	0.02
Tumor grading	0.421	0.004
ER expression	−0.437	0.038
PR expression	−0.316	0.047

Abbreviations:BMI, body mass index; ER, estrogen receptor; FBS, fasting blood sugar; LN, lymph node; PR, progesterone receptor.

Figure 4 Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves of chemerin expression differentiating malignant from adjacent non-tumor breast tissue.

Note:Area under the curve of chemerin overexpression =82%.

Figure 5 Kaplan–Meier survival curves of female patients with breast cancer according to chemerin expression levels.

Notes: The Kaplan–Meier survival curves of 53 females with breast cancer according to chemerin expression levels. A significant difference in survival was observed between patients with high chemerin expression levels (n=30) and those with low chemerin expression levels (n=23). The prognosis of patients with a high expression of chemerin was worse than that of patients with low expression (P=0.001).