Immunohistochemical evaluation of osteopontin expression in triple-negative breast cancer.

Introduction: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is associated with lack of expression of estrogen and progesterone receptors and HER2 and is the subgroup of breast cancers with the worst prognosis. Osteopontin is a phosphorylated glycoprotein whose overexpression may occur in pathological states such as cancers. The main purpose of our study was to evaluate the immunohistochemical expression of osteopontin in connection with the analysis of recognized clinical and pathological prognostic factors in primary sites of TNBC with and without lymph node metastases. Material and methods: The immunohistochemical evaluation of osteopontin expression in 35 women with TNBC, chosen from a group of 726 patients, was performed. The material came from the excisional biopsies of primary breast cancers and total mastectomies. Results: All patients showed expression of osteopontin, in most cases the expression of osteopontin rated at [+] (57.1%) and [++] (42.9%). Our study analyzed the relationship between the expression of osteopontin and traditional prognostic markers, such as the tumor grade, size, and lymph node involvement. We found a strong relationship only between the expression of osteopontin and the presence of lymph node metastases (p ≤ 0.0001). 93% of patients for whom the expression of osteopontin was determined at [++] had metastasis to lymph nodes and, for comparison, only 15% of women for whom the expression of osteopontin was rated at [+] showed the presence of metastases in the lymphatic nodes. Conclusions: There is a correlation between osteopontin expression and the presence of lymph node metastases in TNBC, suggesting that osteopontin plays an important role in the invasiveness of TNBC.

Medullary breast cancer is a predominantly triple-negative breast cancer - histopathological analysis and comparison with invasive ductal breast cancer.

Introduction: Medullary breast cancer (MdBC) is an uncommon type of breast cancer representing 1-7% of all cases. It is characterized by the occurrence of many histopathological features associated with a high grade of malignancy. Material and methods: Twelve MdBCs chosen from a group of 1,122 women suffering from invasive breast cancer were analyzed. Histopathological examination and analysis of a basic molecular profile, i.e. estrogen (ER), progesterone (PR) and HER2 receptor expression, and their comparison with invasive ductal breast cancer (IDC), were performed. Results: MdBC accounted for 1.07% of all analyzed invasive breast cancer patients. All patients were female, with an average age of 58.54 years. The MdBC group exhibited a larger median tumor diameter (2.05 vs. 1.89 cm), although ≥ T2 tumors comprised 42% vs. 51% for IDCs. Women without regional lymph node involvement (pN0) (83%) formed the largest group. There was a statistically significant difference in the presence of nodal involvement between the studied groups (p < 0.001). Based on the histological grade of malignancy, the majority of MdBC comprised grade II tumors (G2) (93%). In general, MdBC showed statistically higher histologic grade (G1-G3) than IDC (p = 0.003). The 5-year overall survival rate of MdBC patients was 91%. Most MdBCs (92%) were triple-negative, whereas the remaining 8% were HER2 positive. Conclusions: MdBC presented at a younger age than IDC, had a higher histological grade, larger median size and less frequent regional lymph node involvement. Most MdBCs were triple-negative, whereas IDCs were predominantly luminal. Despite numerous aggressive pathological features of MdBC, its clinical outcome and overall prognosis are favorable.

Clinicopathological factors associated with novel prognostic markers for patients with triple negative breast cancer.

INTRODUCTION: Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is characterized by a worse prognosis than other breast cancer subtypes. TNBC is defined by lack of expression of estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2. The aim of this analysis was to evaluate the relationship between immunohistochemical expression of novel prognostic markers (erythropoietin (EPO) and erythropoietin receptor (EPO-R)) and clinicopathological features of TNBC and non-TNBC patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Our analysis was conducted on a group of 162 patients with breast carcinoma with lymph node metastasis (111 TNBC and 51 non-TNBC). All statistical analyses were performed with SPSS software v 12.0. RESULTS: Histopathologic subtyping of the 111 triple negative breast cancers identified 89.1% invasive ductal carcinomas of no special type and 10.9% other special types of cancers. TNBC more often presented EPO-R and EPO expression (36%; 37.8%) than non-TNBC (23.5%; 29.4%). Non-TNBC subgroup showed statistically significant correlation only between Ki-67 expression and histological grade (G1-G3) (p < 0.001), while TNBC subgroup demonstrated significant correlation between Ki-67 expression and histological grade (G1-G3) and tumor size (pT1-pT4) as well (p = 0.002; p = 0.042), between the EPO-R expression and histological grade (G1-G3) (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The relationship between the expression of EPO-R and histological malignancy grade in triple negative breast cancer, suggests that the present EPO-R expression in TNBC may constitute an additional prognostic factor.