Observational studyBMC cancer2018
Observational study on the prognostic value of testosterone and adiposity in postmenopausal estrogen receptor positive breast cancer patients.
Observational study in BMC cancer, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 17 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Postdiagnosis body fatness, weight change and breast cancer prognosis: Global Cancer Update Program (CUP global) systematic literature review and meta-analysis.International journal of cancer · 2023Pooled it
- Vitamin D Supplementation and Testosterone Levels in Breast Cancer Survivors.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Trial
- Efficacy of Concurrent Training in Breast Cancer Survivors: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Physical, Psychological, and Biomarker Variables.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Implications of hormonal carcinogenesis for transgender and gender-diverse people undergoing gender-affirming hormone therapy: an up-to-date review.BMJ oncology · 2024Review
- Association of serum cortisol and cortisone levels and risk of recurrence after endocrine treatment in breast cancer.Clinical and experimental medicine · 2023Article
- Mendelian randomization analyses of associations between breast cancer and bone mineral density.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Genetic analyses implicate complex links between adult testosterone levels and health and disease.Communications medicine · 2023Article
- HER2 mRNA Levels, Estrogen Receptor Activity and Susceptibility to Trastuzumab in Primary Breast Cancer.Cancers · 2022Article
- Pre-treatment circulating reproductive hormones levels predict pathological and survival outcomes in breast cancer submitted to neoadjuvant chemotherapy.International journal of clinical oncology · 2022Article
- Minireview: Parabens Exposure and Breast Cancer.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Review
- Anti-Angiogenic Treatments Interact with Steroid Secretion in Inflammatory Breast Cancer Triple Negative Cell Lines.Cancers · 2021Article
- Steroid Ligands, the Forgotten Triggers of Nuclear Receptor Action; Implications for Acquired Resistance to Endocrine Therapy.Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research · 2021Article
- Obesity and Androgen Receptor Signaling: Associations and Potential Crosstalk in Breast Cancer Cells.Cancers · 2021Review
- Pre-Menopausal Women With Breast Cancers Having High AR/ER Ratios in the Context of Higher Circulating Testosterone Tend to Have Poorer Outcomes.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2021Article
- Effectiveness of a Global Multidisciplinary Supportive and Educational Intervention in Thermal Resort on Anthropometric and Biological Parameters, and the Disease-Free Survival after Breast Cancer Treatment Completion (PACThe).Journal of oncology · 2020Article
- Pre-diagnostic sex hormone levels and survival among breast cancer patients.Breast cancer research and treatment · 2019Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
12 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundDespite the clear endocrine-metabolic relationship between androgenic activity and adiposity, the role of androgens in breast cancer prognosis according to patient's adiposity is scarcely explored. Here, we aimed at investigating the prognostic value of circulating testosterone in association with patient's body mass index (BMI).
methodsCirculating testosterone and BMI were evaluated at breast cancer diagnosis in 460 estrogen receptor (ER)-positive postmenopausal patients. Local relapse, distant metastasi(e)s and contralateral breast cancer were considered recurrence events. The Kruskal-Wallis test was performed to evaluate if testosterone levels differed within subgroups of categorical tumour characteristics. The Cox proportional hazard regression model was fitted to estimate the impact of standard prognostic factors on relapse-specific hazard ratio (HR). After backward selection, a model including continuous testosterone level, BMI categories (< 25, normal-weight; =25-30, overweight; ≥30 kg/m
resultsDuring a median follow up of 6.3 years, 45 patients relapsed. Testosterone levels significantly increased across BMI categories (p = 0.001). Both circulating testosterone and BMI were positively associated with disease free survival (p = 0.005 and p = 0.021, respectively). A significant interaction was found between testosterone and BMI (p = 0.006). For normal-weight women, testosterone concentration around median (0.403 ng/mL) or third quartile (0.532 ng/mL) showed a high significant HR of relapse (5.52; 95% CI:1.65-18.49 and 4.55; 95% CI:1.09-18.98, respectively). Overweight patients showed increased HR at increasing testosterone levels, reaching a significant high HR (4.68; 95% CI:1.39-15.70) for testosterone values of 0.782 ng/mL (95th percentile). For obese patients HR decreased (not significantly) at increased testosterone concentrations, explaining the interaction between testosterone levels and BMI categories.
conclusionsIn ER-positive postmenopausal breast cancer patients, high testosterone levels are associated with worse prognosis in normal-weight and overweight women, whereas in obese seems to be associated with a better outcome. Although the results require further validation, they suggest that assessment of circulating testosterone and BMI could help to identify postmenopausal ER-positive patients at higher risk of relapse and potentially open new therapeutic strategies.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.