Circulating transforming growth factor-beta-1 and breast cancer prognosis: results from the Shanghai Breast Cancer Study.

Introduction: Studies investigating the prognostic effect of circulating TGF-beta-1 in breast cancer have given inconsistent findings. The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether circulating transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-beta-1) is associated with overall and disease-free survival in a cohort of recently diagnosed breast cancer patients.

Methods: We measured TGF-beta-1 levels in plasma samples of breast cancer patients in the Shanghai Breast Cancer Study, a population-based case-control study.