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Updated: Nov 20, 2025

Modeling Brain Metastasis Via Tail-Vein Injection of Inflammatory Breast Cancer Cells
Published on: February 4, 2021
Effects of systemic inflammation on relapse in early breast cancer
Nicholas P McAndrew1,2,3, Lisa Bottalico1,4, Clementina Mesaros1,4
1Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA.
Abstract:
Chronic inflammation has been a proposed mechanism of resistance to aromatase inhibitors in breast cancer. Stratifying by HER2 status, a matched case-control study from the Wellness After Breast Cancer-II cohort was performed to assess whether or not elevated serum inflammatory biomarkers (C-Reactive protein [CRP], interleukin-6 [IL-6], and serum amyloid A [SAA]) and/or the presence of a high-risk IL-6 promoter genotype were associated with recurrence of hormone receptor positive (HR+) early breast cancer. Estrogen levels were also measured and correlated with biomarkers and disease outcomes. CRP and SAA were significantly associated with an increased risk of recurrence in the HR+/HER2- group, but not the HR+/HER2+ group. Mean serum estrogen levels were non-significantly elevated in patients who relapsed vs. non-relapsed patients. Surprisingly, high-risk IL-6 promoter polymorphisms were strongly associated with HER2+ breast cancer relapse, which has potential therapeutic implications, as elevated intracellular IL-6 has been associated with trastuzumab resistance in pre-clinical models.
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