Clinical significance of the nuclear receptor co-regulator DC-SCRIPT in breast cancer: an independent retrospective validation study

Table 2 Univariate and multivariable analyses for metastasis-free survival as a function of DC-SCRIPT in lymph node-negative disease

		Univariate analysis				Multivariate analysis^a
Factor	Number	HR	95% CI		Pvalue	HR	95% CI		Pvalue
	837
Age, years
≤ 40	114	1				1
41-55	295	0.88	0.63	1.22		0.95	0.67	1.35
56-70	270	0.72	0.51	1.02		0.69	0.40	1.20
>70	158	0.53	0.35	0.81	< 0.01	0.49	0.27	0.90	0.077
Menopausal status
Premenopausal	350	1				1
Postmenopausal	487	0.78	0.62	0.97	0.028	1.08	0.70	1.66	0.731
Grade
Poor	422	1				1
Unknown	262	1.02	0.79	1.30		1.12	0.87	1.44
Moderate and good	153	0.49	0.34	0.71	< 0.001	0.54	0.37	0.78	< 0.001
PGR mRNA status^b
Negative, < 0.1	312	1				1
Positive, ≥0.1	525	0.68	0.54	0.85	0.001	0.71	0.53	0.95	0.022
Tumor size
≤ 2 cm	378	1
>2 cm + unknown	459	1.26	1.00	1.59	0.047	Analyses stratified by tumor size to meet the proportional hazards assumption
ESR1 mRNA status^b
Negative, < 0.2	199	1
Positive, ≥0.2	638	0.77	0.59	0.99	0.040
Factor analyzed						Additions to the base model
DC-SCRIPT
Continuous	837	0.77	0.67	0.88	< 0.001	0.80	0.70	0.92	0.001
33.3% low	277	1				1
66.7% high	560	0.55	0.43	0.69	< 0.001	0.60	0.47	0.76	< 0.001
ESR2 mRNA status^b
Continuous	820	0.88	0.79	0.99	0.034	0.86	0.76	0.96	0.011
Dichotomized low, < 0.005	410	1				1.00
Dichotomized high, ≥0.005	410	0.80	0.63	1.00	0.052	0.75	0.59	0.94	0.014
DC-SCRIPT and ESR2 combined
Both low	183	1				1
DC-SCRIPT low, ESR2 high	91	0.74	0.51	1.08		0.71	0.49	1.04
DC-SCRIPT high, ESR2 low	227	0.49	0.36	0.67		0.55	0.40	0.76
Both high	319	0.50	0.38	0.67	< 0.001	0.52	0.39	0.69	< 0.001

^aMultivariable analyses were conducted in two blocks. First, a model including all established clinicopathological factors was fitted. The Cox proportional hazards assumptions were checked and the analyses were stratified by tumor size and ESR1 to meet the proportional hazards assumption. In a second block, the contributions of DC-SCRIPT and ESR2 (as continuous or dichotomized variables) were investigated. ^bWith quantitative polymerase chain reaction cut point for positive versus negative ESR1 and PGR, 0.2 and 0.1, respectively, and for ESR2 at the median level of 0.005 (mRNA levels relative to reference gene set). CI, confidence interval; DC-SCRIPT, dendritic cell-specific transcript gene; ESR, estrogen receptor gene; HR, hazard ratio; PGR, progesterone receptor gene; pT1, small tumor without lymphatic/vascular invasion.

ISSN: 1465-542X