Expressão de antígenos de células-tronco neoplásicas avaliada por imunoistoquímica em neoplasias malignas da mama humana

Abstract

Dedico este trabalho a minha esposa Patrícia e a meus pais, pelo amor, carinho e apoio incondicionais e por acreditarem sempre em minha capacidade e em meu trabalho e me incentivarem a persistir para vencervii viii median follow-up was 52 months, with tumor relapse in 28,6% of the cases, median relapse time of 37 months and death of 26,7% of the patients. The most frequently positive NSC markers in our study were CD24, CD44, CD133 and ESA. The other markers were positive in less than 15% of the cases. At least one NSC marker was expressed in 85% of the cases. The single most positive NSC marker was CD44, in 60,8% of the cases. In addition, two NSC profiles were defined: (1) CD24 -/ CD44+ cells and (2) CD133+ / ESA+ cells. The first NSC profile was more frequent in: (1) patients older than 40 years; (2) tumors smaller than 2,0 cm; (3) beginning tumor clinical stages (I and II); (4) and this expression increased death risk in about 4 times.The second NSC profile augmented the relapse tumor risk in about 3,75 times. All NSC markers were more frequent in high histologic grades of tumor (2 and 3). Isolated CD133 expression was more frequent in menopausal patients, while isolated CD24 expression was more frequent in tumors larger than 2,0 cm and isolated CD44 expression was more frequent in patients upper than 40 years.No significant correlation between markers was observed. Thus, immunohistochemistry is a low sensitivity method to detect NSC markers in human breast cancer, limiting the quantitative analysis of them. For this reason, there are not enough evidences to support the clinical value of NSC markers.