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Social well-being is associated with less pro-inflammatory and pro-metastatic leukocyte gene expression in women after surgery for breast cancer

  • Epidemiology
  • Published:
Breast Cancer Research and Treatment Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Satisfaction with social resources, or “social well-being,” relates to better adaptation and longer survival after breast cancer diagnosis. Biobehavioral mechanisms linking social well-being (SWB) to mental and physical health may involve inflammatory signaling. We tested whether reports of greater SWB were associated with lower levels of pro-inflammatory and pro-metastatic leukocyte gene expression after surgery for non-metastatic breast cancer.

Methods

Women (N = 50) diagnosed with non-metastatic (0–III) breast cancer were enrolled 2–8 weeks after surgery. SWB was assessed with the social/family well-being subscale of the FACT-B. Leukocyte gene expression for specific pro-inflammatory (cytokines, chemokines, and COX-2) and pro-metastatic genes (e.g., MMP9) was derived from microarray analysis.

Results

Multiple regression analyses controlling for age, stage of disease, days since surgery, education, and body mass index (BMI) found higher levels of SWB related to less leukocyte pro-inflammatory and pro-metastatic gene expression (p < 0.05). Emotional well-being, physical well-being, and functional well-being did not relate to leukocyte gene expression (p > 0.05). Greater SWB remained significantly associated with less leukocyte pro-inflammatory and pro-metastatic gene expression after controlling for depressive symptoms.

Conclusions

Results have implications for understanding mechanisms linking social resources to health-relevant biological processes in breast cancer patients undergoing primary treatment.

Clinical Trial Registration Number: NCT01422551

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Fig. 1

Note *p < .05; **p < .01. Remains statistically significant after application of the Benjamini–Hochberg procedure at a false discovery rate of 0.10. Scatterplot depicts data after winsorization. Gene expression reported in RNA expression units (log2)

Fig. 2

Note Cytokine composites consisted of IL1A, IL1B, IL6, TNFSF10, TNFRSF21, and PTGS2/ COX-2. Chemokine composites consisted of CCL3, CCL7, CCL20, CCL3L1, CCL4L2, and CXCR7. Pro-metastatic composite consisted of MMP9 and LMNA

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Funding

This study was funded by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health [R01-CA-064710], and the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center.

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Correspondence to Michael H. Antoni.

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The experiments comply with the current laws of the country in which they were performed.

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The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Jutagir, D.R., Blomberg, B.B., Carver, C.S. et al. Social well-being is associated with less pro-inflammatory and pro-metastatic leukocyte gene expression in women after surgery for breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res Treat 165, 169–180 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-017-4316-3

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