Associations of alcohol use with expression of stromal markers in benign breast biopsy samples

作者：Anjoli Armstrong, Yujing J. Heng, Barbara Sardella, Maisey Ratcliffe, Bernard Rosner, Rulla M. Tamimi, Lusine Yaghjyan · 发表于：British Journal of Cancer · 年份：2026 · DOI：10.1038/s41416-026-03481-3 · 研究领域：Cancer Risks and Factors、Alcohol Consumption and Health Effects、Breast Lesions and Carcinomas

BACKGROUND: We explored the associations of alcohol consumption with expression of α-Smooth Muscle Actin (α-SMA), Tenascin-C (TNC), Fibroblast Activation Protein (FAP), Matrix Metalloproteinase-14 (MMP14), and Calcyclin (s100a6) stromal markers in benign breast biopsy samples. METHODS: The study included 683 cancer-free women from the Nurses' Health Study II who had biopsy-confirmed benign breast disease (BBD). Alcohol consumption was assessed with semi-quantitative Food Frequency Questionnaires. The data on breast cancer (BCa) risk factors were obtained from biennial questionnaires. Immunofluorescence for stromal markers was performed on tissue microarrays. For each core, the % positivity was quantified by inForm v2.6.0. Generalised linear regression was used to examine associations between alcohol consumption (recent [at biopsy date] and cumulative average from all available questionnaires before the biopsy date) and log-transformed expression of each marker, adjusting for BCa risk factors and BBD subtype. RESULTS: In multivariate analysis, we observed a suggestive positive association of cumulative average alcohol with TNC (β per 11 g/day = 0.59, 95% CI -0.03,1.22, p = 0.06). Alcohol consumption was not associated with α-SMA, FAP, s100a6, and MMP14. CONCLUSION: Alcohol consumption may be associated with an increased normal stromal fibroblast activation as measured by TNC expression in histologically normal breast tissue. Future studies are warranted to confirm our findings...