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HER‐2/ neu and p53 overexpression as biomarkers of breast carcinoma in women age 30 years and younger
Author(s) -
Maru Dipen,
Middleton Lavinia P.,
Wang Sijan,
Valero Vicente,
Sahin Aysegul
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.052
H-Index - 304
eISSN - 1097-0142
pISSN - 0008-543X
DOI - 10.1002/cncr.20850
Subject(s) - medicine , immunohistochemistry , staining , breast cancer , her2/neu , lymph node , pathology , estrogen receptor , breast carcinoma , carcinoma , lobular carcinoma , ductal carcinoma , medullary carcinoma , progesterone receptor , cancer , thyroid carcinoma , thyroid
BACKGROUND Although p53 and HER‐2/ neu overexpression are found in 30% of breast carcinomas in women of all ages and are associated with high rates of lymph node metastases, their role in women age < 30 years has not been studied extensively. METHODS The institutional breast cancer data base was searched to identify young women (23–30 years) with breast carcinoma. An immunohistochemical analysis was performed to determine estrogen receptor and progesterone receptor expression and p53 and HER‐2/ neu overexpression. Positive staining for p53 was defined as nuclear staining in > 10% of tumor cells. HER‐2/ neu membranous staining was graded as 0, 1 (incomplete, faint staining in > 10% of cells), 2 (weak‐to‐moderate, complete staining in > 10% of cells), or 3 (complete, strong staining in > 10% of cells). Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) was performed on all samples with ≥ 2 and ≥ 3 results, and only FISH‐positive samples were classified as positive. The overexpression was correlated with clinicopathologic features. RESULTS Among 44 patients, 1 patient had medullary carcinoma, and 1 had mixed ductal/lobular carcinoma. All remaining patients were diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma. The clinical stage was T1 in 5 patients, T2 in 24 patients, T3 in 10 patients, T4 in 4 patients, and unavailable in 1 patient. Positive p53 status was determined in 22 of 44 patients (50%), and positive HER‐2/ neu status was determined in 18 of 41 patients (44%). Tumors with lymph node metastasis had a significantly greater incidence of HER‐2/ neu overexpression ( P = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS Frequent overexpression of HER‐2/ neu and p53 was found in the patient population. HER‐2/ neu overexpression was associated significantly with lymph node involvement and, thus, may be a marker for aggressive clinical behavior in patients with breast carcinoma age ≤ 30 years. Cancer 2005. © 2005 American Cancer Society