Oncotarget

Research Papers:

Predictive and prognostic role of peripheral blood eosinophil count in triple-negative and hormone receptor-negative/HER2-positive breast cancer patients undergoing neoadjuvant treatment

Concetta Elisa Onesti, Claire Josse _, Aurélie Poncin, Pierre Frères, Christophe Poulet, Vincent Bours and Guy Jerusalem

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Oncotarget. 2018; 9:33719-33733. https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.26120

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Abstract

Concetta Elisa Onesti1,2,3, Claire Josse1,2,3, Aurélie Poncin1,2,3, Pierre Frères1,2,3, Christophe Poulet1, Vincent Bours1,4 and Guy Jerusalem2,3

1Laboratory of Human Genetics, GIGA Research Institute, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium

2Department of Medical Oncology, University Hospital (CHU Liège), Liège, Belgium

3Laboratory of Medical Oncology, GIGA Research Institute, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium

4Department of Human Genetics, University Hospital (CHU Liège), Liège, Belgium

Correspondence to:

Claire Josse, email: [email protected]

Keywords: eosinophil; neoadjuvant therapy; pathological complete response; triple-negative breast cancer; HER2-positive breast cancer

Received: February 28, 2018     Accepted: September 04, 2018     Published: September 14, 2018

ABSTRACT

In current clinical practices, up to 27% of all breast cancer patients receive neoadjuvant chemotherapy. High pathological complete response rate is frequently associated with tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes. Additionally, circulating immune cells are also often linked to chemotherapy response.

We performed a retrospective analysis on a cohort of 112 breast cancer patients (79 triple-negative, 33 hormone receptor-negative/HER2-positive) treated with standard neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Eosinophil and lymphocyte counts were collected from whole blood at baseline and during follow-ups and their associations with pathological complete response, relapse, disease-free and breast cancer-specific survival were analyzed.

We observed a higher pathological complete response rate in patients who presented at baseline a relative eosinophil count ≥ 1.5% (55.6%) than in those with a relative eosinophil count < 1.5% (36.2%)(p = 0.04). An improvement in breast cancer-specific survival in patients with high relative eosinophil count (p = 0.05; HR = 0.336; 95% CI = 0.107–1.058) or with high relative lymphocyte count (threshold = 17.5%, p = 0.01; HR = 0.217; 95% CI = 0.060–0.783) were also observed. Upon combining the two parameters into the eosinophil x lymphocyte product with a threshold at 35.8, associations with pathological complete response (p = 0.002), relapse (p = 0.028), disease-free survival (p = 0.012) and breast cancer-specific survival (p = 0.001) were also recorded.

In conclusion, the relative eosinophil count and eosinophil x lymphocyte product could be promising, affordable and accessible new biomarkers that are predictive for neoadjuvant chemotherapy response and prognostic for longer survival in triple-negative and hormone receptors-negative/HER2-positive breast cancers. Confirmation of these results in a larger patient population is needed.


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