Jee-Soo Lee, M.D., Eun Hye Cho, M.D., Boram Kim, M.D., Jinyoung Hong, M.D., Young-gon Kim, M.D., Yoonjung Kim, M.D., Ja-Hyun Jang, M.D., Seung-Tae Lee, M.D., Sun-Young Kong, M.D., Woochang Lee, M.D., Saeam Shin, M.D., and Eun Young Song, M.D., on behalf of the Clinical Practice Guidelines Committee of the Korean Society for Laboratory Medicine. Ann Lab Med 2024;44:195-209. https://doi.org/10.3343/alm.2023.0389

Tae-Dong Jeong, M.D., Ph.D., Jinyoung Hong, M.D., Woochang Lee, M.D., Ph.D., Sail Chun, M.D., Ph.D., and Won-Ki Min, M.D., Ph.D.. Ann Lab Med 2023;43:244-52. https://doi.org/10.3343/alm.2023.43.3.244

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Background. The presence of common risk factors suggests that there is a relationship between osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease, possibly via dyslipidemia and inflammation. We investigated the relationships among the lipid profile, the inflammation marker high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), bone turnover markers, and bone mineral density (BMD) to assess the correlation between osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease and identify factors predicting osteoporosis.Methods. The study included 759 Korean women older than 20 years of age. The BMD, serum lipid profile, and levels of hsCRP, cross-linked C-terminal peptide (CTX), and osteocalcin were measured. We compared the serum biomarkers between groups with normal and low BMD and assessed the correlations between the levels of bone turnover markers and the lipid profile and hsCRP level.Results. The concentrations of CTX, osteocalcin, and total cholesterol were significantly higher in the low BMD group than in the normal BMD group in premenopausal women group. However, hsCRP was not correlated with these parameters. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that TC (OR, 1.647; 95% CI, 1.190–2.279) and osteocalcin (OR, 1.044; 95% CI, 1.002–1.088) had an increased risk of low BMD in premenopausal women.Conclusions. These results indicate that total cholesterol concentration is correlated with the levels of bone turnover markers, suggesting that it might predict osteoporosis in premenopausal women.

Anti-epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) therapy has been tried in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients without evaluation of molecular and clinical predictors in several randomized clinical studies. Only fewer than 20% of metastatic TNBCs showed response to anti-EGFR therapy. In order to increase the overall response rate, first step would be to classify TNBC into good or poor responders according to oncogenic mutation profiles. This study provides the molecular characteristics of TNBCs including EGFR gene copy number changes and mutation status of EGFR and KRAS gene in Korean TNBC patients. Mutation analysis for EGFR, KRAS, BRAF and TP53 from a total of 105 TNBC tissue samples was performed by direct sequencing, peptide nucleic acid-mediated PCR clamping method and real-time PCR. Copy number changes of EGFR gene were evaluated using multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification. Out of all 105 TNBCs, 15.2% (16/105) showed EGFR copy number changes. Among them, increased or decreased EGFR copy number was detected in 13 (5 single copy gain, 2 amplification and 4 high-copy number amplification) and 3 cases (3 hemizygous deletion), respectively. The mutation frequencies of KRAS, EGFR and TP53 gene were 1.9% (G12V and G12D), 1.0% (exon 19 del) and 31.4%, respectively. There was no BRAF V600E mutation found. Future studies are needed to evaluate the clinical outcomes of TNBC patients who undergo anti-EGFR therapy according to the genetic status of EGFR.