Presenting Features of Breast Cancer Differ by Molecular Subtype

Abstract

Tumor presentation varies among molecular subtypes; this information may be useful in selecting local therapy. Neoadjuvant therapy and lymph nodes evaluation before surgery or neoadjuvant therapy are likely to be beneficial in HER-2-overexpressing tumors.

Breast Cancer Molecular Subtypes and Associations with Clinicopathological Characteristics in Iranian Women, 2002-2011

“…Unlike some of the previous reports on the association of basal-like and HER -2 subtypes with more than three lymph node metastases (Wiechmann et al, 2009;Abdelkrim et al, 2010), we could not find any significant correlations between molecular subtype of the tumor and lymph node metastasis neither in univariate nor in multivariate analysis. However, there are studies that state the subtype of the tumor is not associated or only weakly associated with its size and lymph node metastasis, suggesting that subtype is "intrinsic" and predetermined (Bhargava et al, 2009).…”

“…The next prevalent subtype in our study was basal-like, followed by HER-2 and luminal B subtypes, respectively. These features are not distinct from breast cancer patients in western countries, where studies have shown that the prevalence of luminal A subtype varies from 47.9% (Munoz et al, 2009) to 75% (Nguyen et al, 2008), the luminal B subtype varies from 8 (Wiechmann et al, 2009) (Ihemelandu et al, 2007). A series conducted in west Africa (Nigeria and Senegal) reported a much higher prevalence of triple-negative (ER−, PR−, Her-2−) tumors (55%) and a lower prevalence of luminal A and luminal B phenotypes (27 and 2% respectively) (Huo et al, 2009).…”

“…Nowadays, estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and HER-2 receptor status of breast tumors can be determined by using immunohistochemical (IHC) markers as surrogates for DNA-microarray in most pathology labs, and the breast cancer cases can be accordingly classified into at least four molecular subtypes including luminal A (ER and/or PR positive, HER-2 negative), luminal B (ER and/or PR positive, HER-2 positive), basal-like (ER negative, PR negative, HER-2 negative) and HER-2/neu (ER negative, PR negative, HER-2 positive) (Bhargava et al, 2009;Huo et al, 2009;Wiechmann et al, 2009;Zhao et al, 2009;Salhia et al, 1882 2011). The HER-2/neu gene is a member of a gene family encoding growth factor receptors, including EGFR, HER-2, HER3 and HER4.…”

Breast cancer subtypes and survival in Chinese women with operable primary breast cancer

“…The frequencies of lymph node metastasis were not significantly different between the four subtypes in the current study, the positive lymph node rate was around 40% among the four subtypes. Other studies showed that patients with HER2+ subtype and triple-negative are more likely to be lymph node positive disease [11][12][13] , we did not find such associations in the current study, possibly due to different study populations or samples selected.…”

Development and Validation of a Breast Cancer Risk Prediction Model for Thai Women: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…estrogen receptor(ER) and progesterone receptor (PR)) is diverse between Asian and Caucasian women. The ER+ tumor in Asian women is not as common as their Caucasian counterparts (Wiechmann et al, 2009;Telli et al, 2011;Chuthapisith et al, 2012). Previous evidences showed that ER+ tumor was associated with reproductive history (i.e., age at menarche, parity, and breastfeeding) while ER-tumor was not (Althuis et al, 2004;Tsakountakis et al, 2005).…”