Tianjin Medical Journal ›› 2023, Vol. 51 ›› Issue (1): 69-73.doi: 10.11958/20220641

• Clinical Research • Previous Articles     Next Articles

The correlation between the level of reticulin 1C in peripheral blood mononuclear cells and the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy for triple negative breast cancer

ZHANG Manli1(), LIU Weiwei1, WANG Lijuan2, LI Weidong3   

  1. 1 Breast Center,, Cangzhou People's Hospital, Cangzhou 061000, China
    2 Operating Room,, Cangzhou People's Hospital, Cangzhou 061000, China
    3 Thyroid and Breast Surgery, Cangzhou People's Hospital, Cangzhou 061000, China
  • Received:2022-04-26 Revised:2022-05-13 Published:2023-01-15 Online:2023-01-17

Abstract:

Objective To explore the relationship between the expression level of reticulin 1C (RTN-1C) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of patients with triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) and the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Methods A total of 154 TNBC patients were selected as the study subjects. Patients were divided into the complete remission group (n=47) and the incomplete remission group (n=107) according to the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Data of age, menstrual status, type of pathology, TNM stage, histological grade, Ki-67 expression >30% and tumour diameter were collected from all subjects. Fasting elbow venous blood samples were collected from TNBC patients before chemotherapy (T0), 7 days after chemotherapy (T1), 14 days after chemotherapy (T2) and 21 days after chemotherapy (T3). Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were isolated by Ficoll density gradient centrifugation. The expression levels of RTN-1C in mononuclear cells were detected by Western blot assay. The receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was used to evaluate the efficacy of RTN-1C in determining neoadjuvant chemotherapy efficacy. Logistic regression was used to analyse risk factors for neoadjuvant chemotherapy efficacy. Nomogram regression models were constructed to predict complete remission of pathology after neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and consistency index (C-index), calibration curves and decision tree curves were used to assess model efficacy. Results The relative expression levels of RTN-1C were lower at T1 and T3 in the complete remission group than those in the incomplete remission group (P<0.05). The relative expression levels of RTN-1C at T0, T1 and T2 decreased over time in the 2 groups (P<0.01). The area under the ROC curve (AUC) of T3-RTN-1C was higher than T0-RTN-1C, T1-RTN-1C and T2-RTN-1C in judging pathological complete remission after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (P<0.01). Logistic regression analysis showed that T3-RTN-1C>0.91 (OR=12.178, 95%CI: 4.796-30.924), N1 or N2 (OR=2.180, 95%CI: 1.100-4.322) and histological grade Ⅲ (OR=3.609, 95%CI: 1.453-8.969) were independent risk factors for pathological incomplete remission after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (P<0.05). Model A (constructed by N stage, histological grade and T3-RTN-1C) had a high degree of coincidence between the fitting curve and the ideal curve, while model B (constructed by N stage and histological grade) had a poor degree of coincidence between the fitting curve and the ideal curve. The C-index of model A and model B were 0.866 and 0.772, respectively. When the threshold probability was higher than 0.40, the net benefit of model A in judging pathological complete response after neoadjuvant chemotherapy was higher than that of model B. Conclusion The model constructed by N stage, histological grade and T3-RTN-1C has a high degree of differentiation, accuracy and clinical application value in judging pathological complete response after neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

Key words: triple negative breast neoplasms, chemotherapy, adjuvant, monocytes, reticulin 1C, pathological complete remission

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