Cui Y, et al. - In this retrospective analysis, researchers investigated clinico-pathologic and prognostic factors that are associated with fatty acid binding protein-4 (FABP4). Further, they discussed its therapeutic potentials in patients with breast cancer (BC). Findings suggest a possible prognostic value of the expression of FABP4 for patients with BC.

Methods

• Researchers performed a retrospective analysis of the medical records of 75 patients with an established diagnosis of invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast, to analyze their immunohistochemical findings.
• They evaluated baseline and clinico-pathological characteristics such as the age, immunohistochemical expressions of FABP4, TNM stage, tumor grade, lymphatic and perineural invasion, estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR), disease-free survival (DFS), overall survival (OS), recurrence and death.
• Then they investigated the correlations of the expression of FABP4 with clinico-pathologic and prognostic factors.

Results

• Tumor grade and recurrence were identified to be significantly associated with the expression of FABP4 (P=0.002 and 0.049, respectively).
• Moreover, researchers identified DFS to be significantly correlated with the expression of FABP4 (P=0.049).