Pregnancy and breastfeeding: a new theory for sHLA-G in breast cancer patients?

Concerns about breast cancer (BC) etiology have increased studies aboutresearches on the the implication of HLA-G molecules in thissuch malignancy. HLA-G molecules act as immune-inhibitory mediators that could promote tumor growth. In this study, we investigated the levels of sHLA-G in plasma samples from women patients withaffected by BC and cor-related them with regarding theirprevious pregnanciesy, or breast-feeding experience as well as their menopause status. We report, for the first time, a significant differences in sHLA-G levels in between BC patients without breast-feeding experience and those who have breastfed (p=0.04). Simi-larly, sHLA-G is significantly increased in BC patients without previous pregnancy experi-ence compared to those who have had this experiencebeen pregnant (p=0.02). No differences in sHLA-G levels were noticed when we comparedbetween premenopausal and postmeno-pausal BC patients. Additionally, we demonstrated that patients having not been pregnant and who have not breastfed have morepresented an increased advanced SBR III grade, associated to with significant enhancement in tumor size compared to with patients who have had both experi-ences (p=0.028). These later patients have also more expressed higher levels ofion of proges-terone and estrogen receptors with an increased chance to be responsive to giving them prob-ably more good response to hormonal therapies. Taken together, our results indicate the probable possible implication of breast-feeding and pregnancy in HLA-G expression during BC and in the protection against complicated stages of BC.