Aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 expression correlates with the invasion of breast cancer

Abstract

BackgroundAldehyde dehydrogenase 1 (ALDH1) is an important marker of tumor-initiating cells. We aimed to investigate ALDH1 expression in benign breast disease and human breast cancer of different histologic stages.MethodsImmunohistochemical staining of ALDH1 was applied to 21 cases with benign breast diseases, 47 ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) cases, 62 cases diagnosed with invasive cancer with extensive intraductal component (EIC), and 58 cases diagnosed with invasive cancer without EIC.ResultsALDH1 was expressed in tumor cells in 61.0 % of 164 breast cancer cases, which was higher than that in benign breast disease (3/21) (P < 0.001). Of these 167 breast cancer cases, a significantly higher rate (54/58) of intratumoral ALDH1 expression was observed in invasive cancer without EIC cases than that in DCIS cases (19/46, one case not available) and invasive cancer with EIC cases (27/60, two cases not available) (P < 0.001). Interestingly, a significantly higher rate (22/48) of intratumoral ALDH1 expression in invasive component was observed than that in in situ component (7/48) in the same tumor (P = 0.001). In 47 DCIS cases, no significant association was observed between ALDH1 positivity and any clinicopathological parameter (all P > 0.05). However, ALDH1 positive invasive breast cancers were significantly more likely to be with large tumor size (P = 0.001), high grade (P < 0.001), and high Ki67 expression (P = 0.009).ConclusionsALDH1 may play an important role in the invasion of breast cancer, and may be associated with aggressive phenotypes of breast cancer.Virtual slidesThe virtual slide(s) for this article can be found here: http://www.diagnosticpathology.diagnomx.eu/vs/1608671725154947.

Targeting aberrant expression of Notch‐1 in ALDH+ cancer stem cells in breast cancer

“…Our study confirms the previous observations that ALDH expression correlates with tumor grade, metastasis, and poor outcome [32,17]. Although, our sample size is small, these findings correlated with a previous publication stating that ALDH1 expression correlates with drug resistance as well as aggressive and metastatic phenotypes in breast cancer [13,48]. The evidence shows that BCSC (ALDH þ ) are multipotent and govern many signaling pathways responsible for aggressive growth, chemo-resistance, metastasis (EMT) and recurrence of the disease.…”

Metastasis-associated in colon cancer-1 and aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 are metastatic and prognostic biomarker for non-small cell lung cancer

“…Its overexpression can increase the risk of alcohol-related cancers [23]. Moreover, ALDH1 has been associated with metastasis and poor prognosis in many human cancers, such as breast cancer [24], ovarian cancer [17], lung cancer [18], and pancreatic cancer [25]. …”

Prognostic value of aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 (ALDH1) in invasive breast carcinomas

“…Recently, a growing number of studies have been investigating the clinicopathological and prognostic value of CSC marker ALDH1 in BC. Most of those studies showed that ALDH1 expression was associated with poor prognostic parameters and worse clinical outcome in BC patients [3,[7][8][9][10][11]. In this study, we immunohistochemically evaluated ALDH1 expression in a series of 217 invasive breast carcinomas and analyzed the correlation between ALDH1 expression and clinicopathological parameters, molecular subtypes of BC, and patient survival.…”

“…Pan et al [8] showed a lower rate of ALDH1 expression in cases with DC in situ (DCIS) and a higher in patients with invasive cancer without extensive intraductal component (EIC). Notably, in the same tumor, the rate of ALDH1 expression was higher in the invasive component than in the in situ component.…”

“…Many studies investigated the clinicopathological and prognostic value of ALDH1/ALDH1A1 in BC types/subtypes [7][8][9][10][11][12], most of them showing that higher ALDH1 expression is associated with larger tumor size, higher histological grade, invasive BCs, higher epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), and/or lower estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) expression. Increased likelihood of lymph node metastasis (LNM) was also associated with ALDH1 expression in some studies [7] although not in all [9].…”