ER−/PR+/HER2− breast cancer type shows the highest proliferative activity among all other combined phenotypes and is more common in young patients: Experience with 6643 breast cancer cases

Abstract

The characterization of breast cancer according to its proliferative activity and the expression of estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors, and human epidermal growth factor receptor‐2 is a laboratory routine that has been adopted worldwide for prognostic and therapeutic purposes. By combining data on the expression of estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors, and human epidermal growth factor receptor‐2, it is possible to obtain 8 tumor patterns categorized as triple‐negative, nonluminal (i.e. positive for human epidermal growth factor receptor‐2 with four subtypes) and luminal (negative for human epidermal growth factor receptor‐2 and positive for estrogen receptor and/or progesterone receptor with three subtypes) tumors. In general, luminal tumors are associated with a higher degree of tumor differentiation and have more favorable clinical outcomes. One of the subtypes of luminal tumors has an ER−/PR+ profile. This is a rather rare tumor subtype that behaves aggressively. The aim of this work was to analyse the proliferative activity of the eight tumor subgroups to verify if the ER−/PR+ type has a higher proliferative activity than the other subtypes, which might be correlated with its more aggressive behavior. To accomplish this, we examined estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, human epidermal growth factor receptor‐2 and Ki67 data from 6643 cases of breast cancer. We found that the tumor type that was positive for only the progesterone receptor and negative for both the estrogen receptor and human epidermal growth factor receptor‐2 (1.3% of all cases) had a proliferative activity that was consistently much higher than those of the other luminal subtypes.

Effects of somatostatin, curcumin, and quercetin on the fatty acid profile of breast cancer cell membranes

“…On the basis of recorded large death rate from breast cancer, it is estimated that more than 23 million people will suffer from this disease till 2030 (Bray et al 2013). The majority of the breast cancer patients have a subtype that expresses estrogen receptors (ER) and progesterone receptors (PR) (Arena et al 2019). There are different therapies available for the treatment of cancers, but many of them facing multiple problems of efficacy and safety which have already affected their overall therapeutic outcome and patient compliance (Park and Kim 2017).…”

Real-world Evidence of Diagnostic Testing and Treatment Patterns in U.S. Breast Cancer Patients with Implications for Treatment Biomarkers from RNA-sequencing Data

“…1D ). 51-52 The distribution of Ki67 results differed significantly among molecular subtypes (chi-squared, P =1.75×10 -9 ), particularly between HR+/HER2- versus HR+/HER2+ patients ( P =0.015) and TNBC versus HR+/HER2- patients ( P =6.38×10 -9 ). The largest proportions of high Ki67 IHC test results were in TNBC (82.0%, n=50 of 61) and HR-/HER2+ patients (75.0%, n=15 of 20), while most low Ki67 results were in HR+/HER2- patients (44.0%, n=140 of 318).…”

Clinicopathological characteristics and prognostic analysis of breast cancer with a hormone receptor status of ER(-)/PR(+)

“…The proportions of ER(-)/PR(+) breast cancer reported in the literature range from 1% ~ 4% ( 6 , 7 ). Some studies suggest that this subtype is highly malignant and has strong proliferation ability ( 8 ), but other studies suggest that this subtype does not exist and is a result of detection errors ( 9 ). Thus, is ER(-)/PR(+) a unique phenotype?…”