Apolipoprotein AI and B as risk factors for development of intraocular metastasis in patients with breast cancer

Objective: Breast cancer is the most common primary lesion resulting in intraocular metastasis (IOM). In this study, we investigated the differences between breast cancer patients with and without IOM, and clarified the risk factors for IOM in patients with breast cancer. Methods: A total of 2,381 patients with breast cancer were included in this study from January 2005 to December 2017. The chi-square test and Student's t-test were applied to evaluate differences between the IOM and non-IOM (NIOM) groups. Risk factors were calculated using binary logistic regression analysis. Receiver operating curve (ROC) analysis was used to assess the diagnostic value of IOM in patients with breast cancer. Results: The IOM incidence in patients with breast cancer was 1.35%. No significant differences were detected in age, gender, menopausal status, or histopathology between the IOM and NIOM groups. The IOM group had more axillary lymph node metastases, lower ApoA1 and higher ApoB, compared with the NIOM group. Binary logistic regression indicated that ApoA1 and ApoB were risk factors for IOM in breast cancer patients (P-values<0.001 and P-values=0.005, respectively). ROC curve analysis revealed area under the curve values for ApoA1 and ApoB of 0.871 and 0.633, using cutoff values of 1.165 and 0.835 g/L, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity values for ApoA1 were 0.813 and 0.849, respectively, while those for ApoB were 0.813 and 0.481. Conclusion: Our data indicate that ApoA1 and ApoB are risk factors for IOM in patients with breast cancer and that ApoA1 is more reliable than ApoB at distinguishing IOM from NIOM in patients with breast cancer.