Type III transforming growth factor (TGFβ) receptor (TGFβrIII) modulates TGFβ superfamily signaling. Its tumor tissue expression is downregulated in human breast cancer. We determined (indirect ELISA) plasma levels of the soluble receptor (sTGFβrIII) in 47 women with breast cancer (AJCC stages 0-IIB) (cases) pre-surgery and over two months after the surgery, and in 36 healthy women (controls). Plasma sTBFβrIII was lower in cases than in the controls (age-adjusted difference -29.7 ng/mL, p < 0.001), and discriminated between disease and health (sensitivity and specificity 100% at 16.6 ng/mL). With adjustment for age, AJCC stage, lymph node involvement, HER2 and hormone receptor status, higher pre-surgery sTBFβrIII was associated with better progression-free survival (HR = 0.68, 95%CI 0.49-0.89, p = 0.004). An increasing trend in plasma sTBFβrIII was observed over 2 months after the surgery (0.6% increase/day, p < 0.001), consistently across the patient subsets. Data suggest a high potential of plasma sTBFβrIII as a novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarker in breast cancer.

中文翻译：

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可溶性III型TGFβ受体在乳腺癌患者的诊断和随访中的作用。

III型转化生长因子（TGFβ）受体（TGFβrIII）调节TGFβ超家族信号。在人类乳腺癌中其肿瘤组织表达被下调。我们确定（间接ELISA）术前和术后两个月以上的47名乳腺癌女性（AJCC 0-IIB期）（病例）和36例健康女性（对照组）的可溶性受体（sTGFβrIII）血浆水平。病例中的血浆sTBFβrIII低于对照组（年龄校正后的差异-29.7 ng / mL，p <0.001），并区分了疾病和健康状况（灵敏度和特异性为16.6 ng / mL时为100％）。通过调整年龄，AJCC分期，淋巴结受累，HER2和激素受体状态，术前较高的sTBFβrIII与更好的无进展生存期相关（HR = 0.68，95％CI 0.49-0.89，p = 0.004）。在手术后的两个月内，血浆sTBFβrIII呈增加趋势（每天增加0.6％，p <0.001），在整个患者亚组中均一致。数据表明血浆sTBFβrIII作为乳腺癌的新型诊断和预后生物标志物具有很高的潜力。