Abstract
GATA-3 and estrogen receptor (ER) are involved in a positive cross-regulatory loop and are frequently coexpressed in breast cancers. GATA-3 expression was shown to be an independent predictor of overall and disease-free survival in some studies, whereas others showed no difference. However, the studies used different cutoff values for determining GATA-3 positivity and analyzed outcomes in patients who received systemic therapy together with those who did not. We investigated GATA-3 expression and correlated clinicopathologic findings and outcomes in 516 women who received systemic chemotherapy and/or hormonal therapy. Nuclear staining of 1% or greater was considered positive for GATA-3, ER and progesterone receptor (PR). Of 516 cases, 436 (84.5%) were GATA-3+. GATA-3+ tumors were more likely to be grade 1 or 2, ER+, PR+, non-triple-negative phenotypes (all P <.0001), and higher stage (P =.01). ER-/GATA-3+ tumors, compared with ER-/GATA-3- tumors, had worse breast cancer survival (BCS) (P =.02) and a trend for worse overall survival (OS) (P =.05) in univariate analysis. However, there was no difference in OS and BCS between patients who received chemotherapy and/or hormonal therapy among GATA-3-positive and GATA-3-negative groups. GATA-3+ tumors are correlated with lower grade, ER+, PR+, and non-triple-negative phenotypes. Although there was no difference in OS and BCS between GATA-3-positive and GATA-3-negative groups, there was an adverse effect of GATA-3 expression in the ER-negative subgroup of patients who received systemic therapy.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 2427-2431 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Human pathology |
Volume | 44 |
Issue number | 11 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Nov 2013 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Funding source: Part of the study was funded by DAMD17-01-1-0128 and R25 CA047888.
Keywords
- Breast cancer
- GATA-3
- Outcomes