Preoperative serum levels of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and prognosis in invasive breast cancer

• AIMS: We investigated the association between preoperative serum levels of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and the prognosis in women with invasive breast cancer. METHODS: Serum levels of FSH were measured in 182 premenopausal and 581 peri- or postmenopausal women with invasive breast cancer. They were followed for a mean time of 84 months. The study endpoint was death from breast cancer (182 events). Analyses were stratified on menopausal status. RESULTS: None of the estimates showed a statistically significant result. In both pre- and postmenopausal women there was a nominally higher probability of survival with a higher FSH level. Point estimates in multivariate analysis incorporating age, tumour diameter, axillary lymph status, estrogen and progesterone receptor content and year of treatment indicated a stronger association with FSH levels in premenopausal than postmenopausal women (relative hazard 0.63 or 0.85, respectively in the highest compared with the lowest quartile). CONCLUSION: We did not find any statistically significant association between preoperative serum level of FSH and prognosis. Today, FSH is not a clinical target for intervention or a clinically useful prognostic factor and the results of clinical studies up to date can only be used for motivation of further experimental laboratory research.

Keyword

Adult

Aged

Breast Neoplasms/*blood/*diagnosis/epidemiology

Comparative Study

Female

Follicle Stimulating Hormone/*blood

Follow-Up Studies

Humans

Middle Aged

Multivariate Analysis

Neoplasm Staging

Postmenopause/blood

Premenopause/blood

Preoperative Care

Prognosis

Prospective Studies

Risk Factors

Statistics

Survival Analysis

Sweden/epidemiology

Tumor Markers; Biological/*blood

Women's Health

MEDICINE

MEDICIN

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)