Breast Cancer: Biomarkers of Diagnosis and Prognosis

A special issue of Cancers (ISSN 2072-6694). This special issue belongs to the section "Cancer Biomarkers".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 February 2025 | Viewed by 2109

Special Issue Editors


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Nottingham Breast Cancer Research Centre, Academic Unit for Translational Medical Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham Biodiscovery Institute, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
Interests: breast cancer; pathology; metabolism; prognosis; biomarkers
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Nottingham Breast Cancer Research Centre, Academic Unit for Translational Medical Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham Biodiscovery Institute, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
Interests: breast cancer

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Breast cancer is a complex disease with high incidence rates worldwide; moreover, it has the second highest mortality in women out of all cancers and therefore remains a key global clinical challenge. However, it exhibits significant clinical and biological heterogeneity with divergent patient outcomes. Diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers are fundamental in the clinical pathway for treating breast cancer and hold great promise for personalized medicine. These can range from imaging-, tissue-, to serological-based markers.

Currently, only a few biomarkers remain decisive. This Special Issue aims to highlight key emerging biomarkers for early detection, predicting recurrence, metastatic spread, and treatment response. By exploring this diverse landscape of biomarkers, we hope to gain a deeper understanding of breast cancer heterogeneity and ultimately pave the way for personalized treatment approaches for every patient.

Dr. Andrew R. Green
Dr. Sarah J. Storr
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Cancers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • breast cancer
  • biomarker
  • diagnosis
  • prognosis

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

14 pages, 871 KiB  
Article
Are All Prognostic Stage IB Breast Cancers Equivalent?
by Stephanie M. Yoon, Shengyang Wu, Amanda Schwer, Scott Glaser, Todd DeWees and Jose G. Bazan
Cancers 2024, 16(22), 3830; https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers16223830 - 14 Nov 2024
Viewed by 400
Abstract
Background/Objectives: The 8th edition of the American Joint Committee on Cancer integrates histology and biomarker status with anatomic extent in breast cancer (BC) pathologic prognostic staging (PPS). However, PPS IB includes anatomic locally advanced hormone-receptor-positive/HER2-negative (LA-HR+/HER2-) and early-stage triple-negative BC (ES-TNBC). Previous research [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: The 8th edition of the American Joint Committee on Cancer integrates histology and biomarker status with anatomic extent in breast cancer (BC) pathologic prognostic staging (PPS). However, PPS IB includes anatomic locally advanced hormone-receptor-positive/HER2-negative (LA-HR+/HER2-) and early-stage triple-negative BC (ES-TNBC). Previous research shows that increased nodal involvement is a critical predictor of worse prognosis, raising questions about whether biological subtype or anatomic stage has a greater influence on outcomes in these discordant cases. We hypothesized that overall survival (OS) remains worse for LA-HR+/HER2- BC compared to ES-TNBC, despite both being classified as PPS IB. Methods: Using the National Cancer Database, we identified patients with LA-HR+/HER2- BC (pT3N1 or pT1-3N2, grade 1–2) and ES-TNBC (T1N0, grade 2–3) treated between 2004 and 2017. Patients without complete primary tumor stage, biomarker status, grade, TNM staging, or treated with neoadjuvant therapy were excluded. The primary endpoint was OS. Multivariable Cox regression evaluated OS between LA-HR+/HER2- BC and ES-TNBC. Results: Among 45,818 patients (17,359 LA-HR+/HER2- BC and 28,459 ES-TNBC), LA-HR+/HER2- BC had significantly worse 6-year OS (86.1% vs. 90.4%; HR = 1.63; p < 0.0001). Among patients receiving appropriate therapies, patients with LA-HR+/HER2- BC had 35% relatively higher risk of death (HR = 1.35; 1.24–1.48; p < 0.0001). These results highlight that LA-HR+/HER2- breast cancer has worse survival compared to ES-TNBC, despite both being classified as PPS IB and receiving all appropriate treatments. Conclusions: Anatomic disease extent remains an important factor in patients with discordant AS and PPS. Future iterations of PPS should re-classify LA-HR+/HER2- breast cancer from PPS IB to ensure more accurate prognostic and survival information. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Breast Cancer: Biomarkers of Diagnosis and Prognosis)
Show Figures

Figure 1

12 pages, 1468 KiB  
Article
Protein Tyrosine Kinase 7 (PTK7) in Breast Cancer: A Retrospective Analysis of Tumour Expression and Association with Clinical Outcome
by Kate Lacey, Megan R. Greener, Tangkam R. Marak, Emad A. Rakha, Andrew R. Green, Ian O. Ellis, Stewart G. Martin and Sarah J. Storr
Cancers 2024, 16(18), 3206; https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers16183206 - 20 Sep 2024
Viewed by 1406
Abstract
Protein tyrosine kinase 7 (PTK7), originally known as colon carcinoma kinase (CCK4), is an evolutionary conserved, catalytically defective transmembrane receptor involved in Wnt signalling. PTK7 has been identified as a potential therapeutic target, and a PTK7 antibody drug conjugate (PF-06647020; cofetuzumab pelidotin) has [...] Read more.
Protein tyrosine kinase 7 (PTK7), originally known as colon carcinoma kinase (CCK4), is an evolutionary conserved, catalytically defective transmembrane receptor involved in Wnt signalling. PTK7 has been identified as a potential therapeutic target, and a PTK7 antibody drug conjugate (PF-06647020; cofetuzumab pelidotin) has been investigated in phase I clinical trials for triple-negative breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and non-small cell lung cancer. PTK7 protein expression was evaluated in 1136 early-stage invasive breast tumours by immunohistochemistry. In addition, PTK7 mRNA expression in the METABRIC (n = 1980) and the TCGA breast cancer cohorts (n = 1082) was evaluated. Associations between PTK7 expression and clinicopathological criteria and patient outcome were determined. No association between PTK7 protein expression and breast cancer-specific survival was observed; however, PTK7 mRNA expression in the METABRIC cohort was associated with breast cancer-specific survival (p < 0.001). PTK7 protein and mRNA expression were associated with breast cancer-specific survival of patients with a poor prognostic Nottingham Prognostic Index (NPI) and a moderate prognostic NPI, respectively. Taken together, these data indicate that PTK7 expression is associated with patient outcome in subgroups of breast cancer patients. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Breast Cancer: Biomarkers of Diagnosis and Prognosis)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop