PERIOSTIN - A Biomarker for Chemotherapy Response in Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women worldwide and remains a leading cause of cancer-related death. While treatment options have improved significantly, advanced breast cancer is still difficult to manage, highlighting the need for reliable biomarkers to monitor treatment response and support clinical decision-making (1-3).

PERIOSTIN – A Biomarker for Chemotherapy Response in Breast Cancer

Periostin (POSTN) is an extracellular matrix protein involved in tissue remodeling, inflammation, and tumor progression. POSTN has been shown to be highly expressed in breast cancer tissues and is often associated with poor clinical outcomes (4, 5). High Periostin serum levels have also been shown to be associated with a poor survival in breast cancer patients (6).

The potential of soluble Periostin (POSTN) as a noninvasive biomarker for monitoring chemotherapy response in advanced breast cancer was investigated in a study that included 231 patients with different stages of breast cancer (7):

Soluble Periostin is a potential surveillance biomarker for early and long-term response to chemotherapy in advanced breast cancer. Jia L et al., Cancer Cell Int. 2024.

Abstract

Background: Noninvasive biomarkers for the assessment of response to chemotherapy in advanced breast cancer (BCa) are essential for optimized therapeutic decision-making. We evaluated the potential of soluble Periostin (POSTN) in circulation as a novel biomarker for chemotherapy efficacy monitoring.

Methods: Two hundred and thirty-one patients with different stages of BCa were included. Of those patients, 58 patients with inoperable metastatic disease receiving HER2-targeted or non-targeted chemotherapy were enrolled to assess the performances of markers in recapitulating the chemotherapy efficacy assessed by imaging. POSTN, together with CA153 or CEA at different time points (C0, C2, and C4) were determined.

Results: POSTN levels were significantly associated with tumor volume (P < 0.0001) and TNM stages (P < 0.0001) of BCa. For early monitoring, dynamics of POSTN could recapitulate the chemotherapy efficacy among all molecular subtypes (Cohen’s weighted kappa = 0.638, P < 0.0001), much better than that of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and cancer antigen 153 (CA15-3). For early partial response, superior performance of POSTN was observed (Cohen’s weighted kappa = 0.827, P < 0.0001) in cases with baseline levels above 17.19 ng/mL. For long-term monitoring, the POSTN response was observed to be strongly consistent with the course of the disease. Moreover, progression free survival analysis showed that patients experienced a significant early decrease of POSTN tended to obtain more benefits from the treatments.

Conclusions: The current study suggests that soluble POSTN is an informative serum biomarker to complement the current clinical approaches for early and long-term chemotherapy efficacy monitoring in advanced BCa.

PERIOSTIN can reliably be measured in human serum and plasma samples with a conventional ELISA assay kit

Periostin ELISA Assay Highlights (Cat. No. BI-20433)

• Small sample volume – 10 µl / well
• Reliable – full validation package
• Easy – 7 standards and 2 controls included
• Trusted – widely cited 
• Only assay that detects all known Periostin isoforms – see publication :

 

Characterization of a sandwich ELISA for the quantification of all human periostin isoforms. Gadermaier, E., et al.,  2018. J. Clin. Lab. Anal. 32, e22252.PMID:28493527

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Literature:

1. Breast cancer pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment: a comprehensive review. Pasi D et al., Front Oncol. 2026 Mar 26;16:1773232. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2026.1773232. PMID: 41971420; PMCID: PMC13061716.
2. Breast Cancer WHO 2026
3. An overview about biomarkers in breast cancer: Insights into the diagnostic and prognostic significance. Santos EPV et al., Clin Chim Acta. 2025;567:120030. doi: 10.1016/j.cca.2024.120030. Epub 2024 Nov 7. PMID: 39515632.
4. Epithelial periostin expression is correlated with poor survival in patients with invasive breast carcinoma. Kim GE  et al., PLoS One. 2017 Nov 21;12(11):e0187635. ddoi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0187635. PMID: 29161296; PMCID: PMC5697858.
5. The prognostic value of stromal and epithelial periostin expression in human breast cancer: correlation with clinical pathological features and mortality outcome. Nuzzo PV et al., BMC Cancer. 2016 Feb 12;16:95. doi: 10.1186/s12885-016-2139-y. PMID: 26872609; PMCID: PMC4752779.
6. High serum levels of periostin are associated with a poor survival in breast cancer. Rachner TD et al., Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2020 Apr;180(2):515-524. doi: 10.1007/s10549-020-05570-0. Epub 2020 Feb 10. PMID: 32040688.
7. Soluble Periostin is a potential surveillance biomarker for early and long-term response to chemotherapy in advanced breast cancer. Jia L et al., Cancer Cell Int. 2024 Mar 19;24(1):109. doi: 10.1186/s12935-024-03298-1. PMID: 38504252; PMCID: PMC10953259.