Tumor LDH-A expression and serum LDH status are two metabolic predictors for triple negative breast cancer brain metastasis

There are limited therapeutic methods for triple negative breast cancer in the clinic, which is easy to progress into the brain to form metastatic lesions and evolve into the terminal stage. Because both the primary cancer and the brain metastasis have high glycolysis, we hypothesize that lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), which catalyzes the final step of glycolysis, may be a predictor, as well as a treatment target, for breast cancer brain metastasis. Therefore, the expression of LDH-A was detected on 119 triple negative breast cancer tissues with immunohistochemistry, and the serum LDH levels were also measured. Our results showed that the LDH-A expression inside the tumor was significantly higher than the matched normal tissues. Tumor LDH-A expression, serum LDH status, and the slope of serum LDH status were closely associated with triple negative breast cancer brain metastasis and brain metastasis free survival. This study indicates that tumor LDH and serum LDH status are two predictors for triple negative breast cancer brain metastasis.