Breast cancer in togolese women: immunohistochemistry subtypes

Abstract

Background Molecular classification of breast cancer is an important factor for prognostic and clinical outcomes. There are no data regarding molecular breast cancer subtypes among Togolese women. The objective of this study was to evaluate the expression of ER, PR, HER2, and molecular subtypes of breast cancer receptors in Togolese patients and to establish the correlation between clinical and histological data and molecular types. Methods Clinicopathologic data of patients were collected from clinical records. Immunohistochemistry biomarkers (ER, PR, and HER2) were assessed in patients who have been diagnosed with invasive breast cancer from March 2016 to March 2020 in the department of oncology. The analysis of variance and the Chi-square Test was used to analyze the data. Results A total of 117 cases were collected. The mean age of patients was 52.05 ± 12.38 with an age range of 30 to 85 years. Half of the patients were over 50 years old and the majority (70.9%) was postmenopausal. More than half of patients (52.1%) presented with T3-T4tumors.The most common histologic subtype of breast cancer was invasive ductal carcinoma of no special type (95.7%). Tumors grade 2 were predominant (51.3%) followed by grade 3 (42.7%). Advanced carcinomas were found in 69 patients (59%). The percentage of ER+, PR+, and HER2 positive tumors was 54.7%, 41%, and 15.4% respectively. The predominant molecular subtype was Triple negative (37.6%), followed by Luminal A (30.8.7%), Luminal B subtype (23.9%), and HER2 enriched (7.7%). There was a significant association between stage and breast cancer subtypes (p 0.025), histologic grade, and subtype (p < 0.0001) but no correlation was found with age, menopausal status, and tumor size. Conclusion Breast carcinoma in our patients are high grade tumors and are diagnosed at an advanced stage. Triple negative and Luminal A are the two predominant breast cancer subtypes in Togolese women. Consequently, Receptor testing availability should be a priority to offer the best breast cancer treatment.

Rule-Based Information Extraction from Free-Text Pathology Reports Reveals Trends in South African Female Breast Cancer Molecular Subtypes and Ki67 Expression

“…Our findings of the distribution of the molecular subtypes correlate with the patterns found in the study by Dickens et al [ 2 ]; however, these prior studies, including our study, found that HER2-OE is the least common subtype in South Africa. Our study also agrees with international studies that have explored the trend of these subtypes [ 5 , 45 ]. With respect to the correlation between molecular subtype and age, our study corroborates with Dickens et al [ 2 ], which shows that the proportion of Luminal A increased with age and showed a decreasing pattern with Luminal B, as well as HER2-OE and TNBC at an older age.…”

“…Breast cancer (BC) is a complex and heterogeneous disease and remains the most commonly diagnosed malignancy among women in South Africa [ 1 ]. The prognosis of this disease depends on several biological and clinical features, including oestrogen and progesterone (ER and PR) receptors, human epidermal growth factor (HER2) receptor, Ki67 proliferation index, histologic type, and tumour grade [ 2 – 5 ]. This histopathology information forms the basis for a patient's optimal treatment decisions, described in a pathology report.…”

Immunohistochemical Features of Breast Cancer Seen in Women in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo: A Six-Year Retrospective Study

“…A recent systematic review and meta-analysis by Eng et al [24] reported that most cases of BC in Africa were positive for ER. As in our study, Adani-Ifè et al [25] found that the proportion of patients expressing ER (54.7%) was higher than that of PgR positive (41%). The same observation has been reported by different authors [18,[26][27][28].…”

“…BC subtypes were correlated with histological grade (p < 0:0001 ). A significant association between the histological grade and the molecular subtype of BC was also reported in Ivorian [18], Togolese [25], Moroccan [38], Sudanese, and Eritrean women [39].…”

“…Our results are contrary to those of Atangana et al [15] who had shown that the most common subtype was triple negative (37.98%), followed by luminal A tumors (36.06%), HER2-overexpressed tumors (12.98%), and luminal B tumors (7.21%). Other SSA studies had also found a predominance of the triple negative phenotype [25,31]. Triple negative is considered to be more common in younger women and is associated with aggressive clinicopathological characteristics [32,33].…”