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Screening for basal marker expression is necessary for decision of therapeutic strategy for triple‐negative breast cancer
Author(s) -
Sasa Mitsunori,
Bando Yoshimi,
Takahashi Masako,
Hirose Toshiyuki,
Nagao Taeko
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of surgical oncology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.201
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1096-9098
pISSN - 0022-4790
DOI - 10.1002/jso.20906
Subject(s) - basal (medicine) , triple negative breast cancer , breast cancer , phenotype , immunohistochemistry , progesterone receptor , pathology , medicine , estrogen receptor , oncology , cancer , estrogen , biology , gene , genetics , insulin
Background Triple‐negative breast cancer (estrogen receptor‐negative, progesterone receptor‐negative and Her2‐negative) can be classified into two subtypes: basal and non‐basal phenotype. Among these subtypes the basal phenotype is associated with poor outcome. Ordinarily, clinicopathological testing involves only screening for ER, PgR and Her2, and for this reason the therapeutic approach that is decided for triple‐negative disease is usually the same regardless of the subtype. Methods Immunohistochemical staining was performed for the CK5/6, CK14, and CK17 basal markers in 66 triple‐negative patients for the purpose of classifying as basal or non‐basal phenotype, and the clinicopathology was investigated. Results Forty (60.1%) were the basal phenotype. Compared with the non‐basal phenotype, the basal phenotype lesions were significantly larger in diameter, higher incidences of EGFR‐positive and a high nuclear grade. In the node‐negative group the basal phenotype clearly showed those same clinicopathological differences and a higher incidence of distal recurrence compared with the non‐basal phenotype. Conclusions Although there was the small number of the patients, this study results show that it is important to perform basal marker immunohistochemical staining and classify lesions as the basal or the non‐basal phenotype, since this will aid in deciding the therapeutic strategy for triple‐negative breast cancer. J. Surg. Oncol. 2008;97:30–34. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.