Elevated CCL20 expression was associated with poor prognosis for breast cancer

The chemokine (C-C motif) ligand 20 (CCL20) exhibits pronounced expression within tumor cells, effectively facilitating tumor progression by modulating the immunosuppressive microenvironment and promoting tumor cell aggressiveness.

Breast cancer and matched adjacent normal tissues from 113 adult breast cancer patients were collected for immunohistochemical staining of CCL20, E-cadherin, vimentin, and N-cadherin. The assessment evaluated the association between CCL20 expression and clinicopathological factors using Pearson chi-squared test, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers expression using Spearman's rank correlation test, both OS and DFS using Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, and Cox proportional hazards regression modeling.

Cytoplasmic CCL20 expression was stronger in cancer tissues, compared to normal tissue (69.9% vs 23%). Strong correlations were observed between CCL20 expression and many clinicopathological features, including tumor size ( p = 0.000), estrogen receptor (ER) status ( p = 0.003), Ki67 status ( p = 0.000), vascular invasion ( p = 0.001), and tumor-node-metastasis stage ( p = 0.001). Additionally, CCL20 expression was an independent prognostic predictor for overall survival (OS) (hazard ratio [HR], 3.207; 95% CI, 1.142-9.005, p = 0.027). Furthermore, a significant association between CCL20 expression and EMT markers was observed. CCL20 expression was linked to unfavorable outcomes in all patients ( p = 0.000), ER-positive patients ( p = 0.001), and node-positive/negative ( p = 0.005/0.001) subgroups.

These findings highlighted that elevated CCL20 expression was linked to a more aggressive tumor phenotype and a disappointing OS in breast cancer patients, thus advocating for the consideration of CCL20 expression being a novel independent prognostic biomarker for guiding bespoke treatment strategies.