α-Smooth Muscle Actin as Predictors of Early Recurrence in Early-Stage Ductal Type Breast Cancer After Mastectomy and Chemotherapy

Breast cancer recurrence after surgery was a sign that the progress of the disease was continuing. Early detection of breast cancer patients who are at risk requires  development of a marker. Alfa smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) plays a role in the local recurrence process of invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC). Currently, existing tumor markers are used to predict the prognosis of breast cancer in general, not the early stages. Therefore, it was thought that finding α-SMA expression might predict early recurrence in early-stage IDC more accurately than others. This study investigated the potential role of α-SMA expression as a predictor of early recurrence in early-stage IDC and its relationship to clinicopathological factors.

The study design was cross-sectional, with data obtained from the medical records of Dr. Koesnadi, General Hospital, Bondowoso, Indonesia. Bivariate and multivariate analysis was performed to analyze data.

We included 50 subjects divided into the local recurrence group (n=25) and the non-local recurrence group (n=25). We found a statistically significant correlation between the incidence of local recurrence in early-stage IDC and the high expression of α-SMA (odd ratio [OR]=23.22, 95% confidence interval [CI]=5.101-105.7, P=0.001). Clinicopathological variables and α-SMA expression did not have a significant correlation.

In early-stage IDC, α-SMA expression had the potential to predict and could be an independent prognostic factor for early recurrence.