The characteristics of breast cancer subtypes: implications for treatment guidelines and individualized treatment strategies in China

Breast cancer molecular subtype and relationship with clinicopathological profiles among Vietnamese women: A retrospective study

BACKGROUND

Molecular subtypes play an important role in predicting prognosis and guiding treatment for breast cancer. Having a better knowledge of ethnic molecular features is essential.

OBJECTIVES

Determining the distribution of various breast cancer molecular subtypes and investigating the relationship between these subtypes and clinicopathological features.

METHODS

Retrospective data was collected from Hanoi National Cancer Hospital and Bach Mai Hospital that included 274 women diagnosed with invasive breast cancer between January 2017 and June 2019. Patients were categorized into five subtypes according to the 2015 St. Gallen molecular classification. The variables analyzed were molecular subtypes and tumor-related characteristics. To evaluate the relationship between these subtypes and clinicopathological features, a Chi-squared test and Fisher exact test were performed.

RESULTS

The most prominent subtype was Luminal A (33.2%), followed by Luminal B/Her2- (19.7%) and Luminal B/Her2 + (17.5%), then HER2 overexpression (16.4%), whereas triple negative was the least popular subtype (13.1%). Particularly, 33.9% of all patients, including the Luminal B/Her2 + and the HER2 overexpressing groups, were Her2 positive. There was a statistically significant difference between molecular subtypes and histological type (p = 0.01), tumor grade (p < 0.001), but it was independent of age, tumor size, lymph node metastasis, and lymphovascular invasion.

CONCLUSIONS

In contrast to the triple negative variant, the Luminal A variant is the most common among Vietnamese women. The rate of positive tests for HER2 was rather high. These subtypes were closely related to tumor grade and histopathological type. Understanding the molecular subtypes and their relation to clinicopathological features helps clinicians with patient treatment, and prognosis. The application of the 2015 St. Gallen molecular classification should be recommended for use in clinical practice.

The Structure and Parameterization of the Breast Cancer Transition Model Among Chinese Women

OBJECTIVES

Markov model simulation based on the natural history of disease is commonly employed for the comparative research of health interventions. The present study aims to simulate the natural progression of breast cancer and parameterize the initial and transition probabilities of multiple states of breast cancer development among Chinese women.

METHODS

The age-specific incidence, mortality, and clinical stage distribution of breast cancer; and relapse rate of each clinical stage were collected from China's cancer registry yearbooks and clinical epidemiological studies to simulate the process from full health to breast cancer to death among Chinese women aged 30 to 80 through a Markov cohort study. The validity analysis was conducted to evaluate the accuracy of the model estimation.

RESULTS

A Markov transition model with 7 states (no breast cancer, clinical stages 0-IV breast cancer, and death) was constructed for Chinese women. The age-specific incidence, mortality, and clinical stage distribution of breast cancer estimated by the initial and transition probabilities among different Markov states were highly consistent with the registered data and observed studies.

CONCLUSION

A breast cancer transition model for Chinese women has been established with validity. It could be a point of reference for further economic evaluations and breast cancer screening policy formulation.

Molecular Profiling of Breast Carcinoma in Almadinah, KSA: Immunophenotyping and Clinicopathological Correlation

PURPOSE

To subtype breast cancer (BC) in Saudi women according to the recent molecular classification and to correlate these subtypes with available clinicopathological parameters.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor (Her2/neu) immunostaining was semi-quantitatively assessed to define molecular subtypes of luminal A and B, HER-2 and triple negative (basal- like) in BC paraffin embedded sections from 115 Saudi female patients diagnosed between 2005 to 2015 at the Department of Pathology, King Fahd Hospital, Almadinah, Saudi Arabia.

RESULTS

The most common subtypes were luminal A (47%), followed by luminal B (27.8%) and basal like subtypes (18.3%), whereas HER-2 was the least common subtype (6.9%). Luminal A was predominantly found in the old age group, with low tumor grade (p< 0.001) and small tumor size, whereas HER-2 and basal-like subtypes were significantly associated with young age, high tumor grade, lymph node metastasis and lymphovascular invasion (p< 0.03, 0.004, 0.05 and 0.04 respectively). All subtypes showed advanced clinical stage at the time of presentation.

CONCLUSIONS

Molecular subtypes of Saudi BC patients in Almadinah region are consistent with most of the worldwide subtyping. The biological behaviour of each molecular subtype could be expected based on its characteristic clinicopathological features. Along with other prognostic indicators, molecular subtyping would be helpful in predicting prognosis and management of our BC patients. We recommend screening and early diagnosis of BC in our population.

High vascular endothelial growth factor gene expression predicts poor outcome in patients with non-luminal A breast cancer

Breast cancer is the most frequent type of cancer among women worldwide. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), the key modulator of angiogenesis, has been implicated in breast cancer susceptibility and aggressiveness. VEGF expression was determined in 99 breast cancer tissue samples using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) status was determined by immunohistochemistry. Subsequently, the associations of VEGF, HER2 and hormone receptor status with clinicopathological data were evaluated. High VEGF expression was found to be significantly correlated with the presence of lymphovascular invasion. In hormone receptor-positive/HER2-positive, HER2-positive and triple-negative breast cancer, high VEGF expression was correlated with the presence of axillary nodal metastasis and lower overall survival rates. Therefore, the assessment of the VEGF status along with the hormone receptor and HER2 status may help identify high-risk patients who may benefit from anti-VEGF treatment.

The prognostic value of lymph node status among breast cancer subtypes

BACKGROUND

Breast cancer subtypes (BCSs) are predictive of responses to specific therapies and of prognostic value for clinical outcomes. This study aimed to evaluate the relative 5-year overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival rates (RFS) based on lymph node (LN) status among BCSs.

METHODS

Medical records of 1,399 breast cancer patients treated from 2006 to 2011 were retrospectively reviewed. Pathologic findings, type of treatment, and OS and RFS were evaluated for 5 molecular subtypes.

RESULTS

Luminal A cancers accounted for 40.9% of the total, luminal B 21.5%, luminal human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) 24.8%, HER2 6.9%, and triple negative 5.9%, of which 30% (n = 395) were LN positive. Analysis of patient characteristics showed significant differences among BCSs in age, tumor size, LN status, chemotherapy, and endocrine therapy. Adjustments for age and tumor size revealed significant differences in OS according to the nodal status in luminal A, luminal B, and luminal HER2 subtypes, and with RFS in the luminal B and luminal HER2 subtypes.

CONCLUSION

LN status in BCS presents an important prognostic factor of OS and RFS.