Sobchenko S. Clinical, pathological and molecular-biological significance of lactoferrin in breast cancer

Thesis is devoted to the actual problem of oncology - the study of LF in vitro system and ex vivo on clinical material and substantiation of its clinical-pathological and molecular-biological significance in breast cancer. In the in vitro experimental system, the highest expression rates of LF were detected in cells with a high degree of malignancy of the lines MDA-MB-231 and MDA-MB-468 (285.0 ± 2.1 and 251.0 ± 2.3 points, respectively), compared with the low degree of malignancy cells T47D and MCF-7 (92.0 ± 1.9 and 70.0 ± 1.6, respectively). Ex vivo on clinical material, a high level of serum LF was identified in elderly women who were in menopause, with infiltrative ductal breast cancer (r = 0.49; p <0.05), a low degree of differentiation (r = -0.54; p <0.05) and basal molecular subtype (r = -0.61; p <0.05). The largest number of LF-positive tumors was recorded in infiltrative ductal breast cancer (91.1%), in tumors of low degree of differentiation (90.3%) and in tumors of the basal molecular subtype (97.1% of cases) (p <0.05). A connection was found between the content of LF in serum and its expression in tumor cells with such molecular and biological characteristics of breast cancer as the expression status of PE and RP (r = -0.53 and r = -0.61, respectively) and proliferative activity of cells ( r = 0.57 and r = 0.49, respectively). It is proved that the expression of circulating and tumor miRNA-214 correlates with age and state of reproductive function of patients (p <0.05), as well as histological type (p <0.05), the degree of differentiation and molecular subtype of tumors (p <0, 05). The overall 5-year survival of patients with breast cancer is significantly lower in the presence of LF expression, no expression of PE and RP and high proliferative potential of tumor cells. The possibility of using LF indicators in blood serum and tumor cells was grounded for in-depth characterization of the tumor process and prediction of the aggressiveness of the breast cancer.