ArticleCancer research and treatment2026
Proteomic Analysis Identifies Association of Periostin, a Matricellular Protein, with High Tumor Stroma and Immune Exclusion in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer.
Article in Cancer research and treatment, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Targeting the Barriers Driving Immune Exclusion.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Cyclin-dependent kinase 4 and 6 inhibitors and the breast cancer immune ecosystem: immune remodeling, resistance, and therapeutic reprogramming.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
purposeImmune-excluded/desert tumors show reduced responsiveness to immunotherapy compared to inflamed tumors. The tumor stroma contributes to immune evasion. This study aimed to identify proteins overexpressed in tumors with high tumor stroma among immune excluded triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) to better understand the mechanisms of immune exclusion. MATERIALS AND
methodsProteomic analysis was conducted on formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded samples from 403 cases of TNBC. We compared protein expression between stroma-high versus stroma-low within the immune-excluded subtype. We investigated the correlations between the identified protein expression and other clinicopathologic features. Immunohistochemical (IHC) staining and single-cell analysis were conducted, along with survival analysis.
resultsAmong the 247 eligible cases, 81 (32.8%) were classified as immune-excluded and 166 (67.2%) as inflamed. Within the excluded subtype, periostin was the only extracellular matrix-related protein significantly overexpressed in stroma-high cases. Periostin expression demonstrated a positive correlation with the amount of stroma (r=0.51, p < 0.001) and a negative correlation with tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) (r=-0.30, p < 0.001). Periostin expression in the tumor stroma was confirmed by IHC. Single-cell analysis demonstrated that periostin originated from cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs). High periostin levels correlated with poorer recurrence-free survival (hazard ratio, 1.422; p=0.005).
conclusionPeriostin is overexpressed in stroma-rich, immune-excluded TNBC and is derived from CAFs. Its expression is associated with reduced TILs and poor prognosis. The development of targeted agents against periostin-positive CAFs may help overcome immune evasion and improve the effectiveness of immunotherapy in TNBC.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
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 Socratic graph.