Effect of obesity and VEGF on clinical pathology and prognosis of breast cancer / 中华内分泌外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the relationship of obesity and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)and the clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of breast cancer.Methods From Jan.2013 to Dec.2015,147 breast cancer patients were treated at the Department of Breast Surgery in Jiangsu University Affiliated People's Hospital.The clinical factors such as BMI,clinicopathological data and survival prognosis were collected.The chi-square test was used to analyze the association between factors and obesity.Log-rank test and COX regression analysis were performed to make univariate and multivariate analysis.The Oncomine and Kaplan Meier plotter were employed to assess the expression of VEGF in breast cancer and its association with survival prognosis of breast cancer patients.Results The median follow-up time was 40 (ranging from 12 to 58) months.Obesity was associated with tumor size(x2=11.009,P=0.001),and there was no significant correlation between axillary lymph node status,hormone receptor and Her-2 expression.The results of single factor analysis suggested that obesity and axillary lymph node status significantly affected the breast cancer patients OS (P=0.035,P=0.038)and RFS (P=0.035,P=0.036)).Cox multivariate regression analysis results suggested that obesity could be considered as an independent prognostic factor of breast cancerP=0.051,HR=3.849 (95％ CI0.995-14.895);Oncomine database analysis found that VEGF was relatively high in breast cancer tissue compared to that in adjacent tissues.Kaplan Meier plotter analysis results showed better overall survival (OS)and recurrence free survival (RFS)in patients with low expression of VEGF in breast cancer tissues.Conclusions Obesity is an adverse prognostic factor in breast cancer patients,and may be associated with elevated VEGF.Weight control may improve the prognosis of breast cancer patients.