Abstract 31P
Background
Angiogenesis is associated with poor survival. However, previous clinical studies assessing anti-angiogenesis methods demonstrated no clear overall survival benefits due to the lack of appropriate biomarkers. Therefore, detecting biomarkers that identify patients who might benefit from targeted anti-angiogenesis agents may help determine which patients would benefit from these therapies. This study aimed to identify biomarkers that reflect tumor angiogenesis and serve as prognostic factors.
Methods
Patients with stage I-III breast cancer who completed the planned treatment were assessed. Data were retrospectively collected from the Wonju Severance Christian Hospital database of Yonsei University and the Korean National Cancer Center database.
Results
A total of 534 patients were enrolled. Patients were divided into two groups based on the cut-off value, 31.4% of the proportional ratio between the maximum Hounsfield unit (HU) of the tumor and maximum HU of the aortic arch (maximum tumor-aorta ratio, TAR). The Kaplan-Meier curve and log-rank test revealed that the high TAR group exhibited significantly worse distant recurrence-free survival rates (p=0.001). The Cox proportional hazard model indicated that age, ER negativity, and high TAR were significant risk factors for distant relapse.
Conclusions
TAR measured by computed tomography before treatment is a potential prognostic factor for overall and distant relapse-free survival in patients with breast cancer. TAR is a potential biomarker for patients who will benefit from anti-angiogenesis agents.
Legal entity responsible for the study
The authors.
Funding
Has not received any funding.
Disclosure
All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.