Key result
Higher body mass index (OR 0.86) and increased tumor apelin expression (OR 0.90) were independently associated with a significantly reduced pathological complete response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with early breast cancer.
Why the study?
Obesity affects chemotherapy response, and increased levels of the adipokine apelin are directly involved in breast cancer progression, but their impact on response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy required analysis.
Do obesity and high tumoral apelin expression reduce pathological complete response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer patients?
Cohort (n=62)
No
Do obesity and high tumoral apelin expression reduce pathological complete response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer patients?
Odds Ratio: 0.86 (95% CI 0.74–0.99)
Absolute Event Rate: 13% vs 55%
p-value: p=0.04
Obesity and high tumor apelin expression are independently associated with poorer pathological complete response rates to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in early breast cancer.
Apelin may modulate chemotherapy response in obese breast cancer; leaves open whether targeting it alters outcomes in prospective trials.
Obesity is a known factor increasing the risk of developing breast cancer and reducing disease free survival. In addition to these well-documented effects, recent studies have shown that obesity is also affecting response to chemotherapy. Among the multiple dysregulations associated with obesity, increased level of the apelin adipokine has been recently shown to be directly involved in the association between obesity and increased breast cancer progression. In this study, we analyzed in a retrospective cohort of 62 breast cancer patients the impact of obesity and tumoral apelin expression on response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy. In the multivariate logistic regression, obesity and high tumoral apelin expression were associated with a reduced response to NAC in our cohort. However, obesity and high tumoral apelin expression were not correlated, suggesting that those two parameters could be independently associated with reduced NAC response. These findings should be confirmed in independent cohorts.
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Gourgue et al. (2021) conducted a cohort in Early breast cancer (n=62). Higher body mass index (BMI) and tumor apelin expression vs. Lower BMI and lower tumor apelin expression was evaluated on Pathological complete response (pCR) to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (OR 0.86, 95% CI 0.74-0.99, p=0.04). Higher body mass index (OR 0.86) and increased tumor apelin expression (OR 0.90) were independently associated with a significantly reduced pathological complete response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with early breast cancer.
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