Immunophenotyping of male breast cancer

Abstract

Several tissue biomarkers are associated with an aggressive phenotype in male breast cancer. PR and p53 are the most promising individual prognostic markers. On the basis of immunophenotype, four distinctive and prognostically relevant male breast cancer groups were identified, indicating that protein expression profiling may be clinically useful in male breast cancer.

Characterisation of male breast cancer: a descriptive biomarker study from a large patient series

“…However, none of the other biomarkers examined influenced outcome in MBC, despite showing significance in female breast cancer. This agrees partially with Kornegoor who showed no effect of Bcl2 on MBC survival but reported that p53 and HER2 were associated with poor survival10. Such disparity could be a reflection of cohort size, or potentially may suggest further differences in underlying biology between genders which is starting to be illuminated9.…”

“…Comparative analysis of clinicopathological data from our cohort with combined data extracted from 15 studies published over the last 21 years, reporting ≥30 cases101112141617181932333435363738 was investigated totalling 1984 cases. Key observations from our cohort were that the majority of patients present with ductal histology, grade 2, with high incidence of ER and PR expression, reflective of luminal A phenotype.…”

“…Information derived from these small numbers are at best anecdotal. In the last decade interest in MBC has grown, resulting in accumulation of more substantial numbers of cases allowing study of common biomarkers including estrogen receptor (ER) α, progesterone receptor (PR)910111213) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)910111213 as well as less frequently evaluated biomarkers such as ERβ9 androgen receptor (AR)910121314), Bcl-21013, p53101213, Ki6710111315, FOXP114, GCDFP14, NAT116, HLA16, MGB14, COX-217, CD3418 and survivin17. BRCA mutations have also been studied19.…”

CYP2D6*4 polymorphism: A new marker of response to hormonotherapy in male breast cancer?

“…The histological grade was assessed with the Nottingham score. From the immunohistochemical analysis, estrogen and progesterone receptors were considered to be positive if !1% cells showed nuclear staining [15], Ki67 staining was interpreted as low or high by the use of a 14% threshold [8], p53 staining was considered to be positive if !5% cells showed accumulation [8] and androgen receptors were considered positive when at least 10% of nuclei were stained [8]. Cases were considered to be HER2-positive when they were 3þ by immunohistochemically test, according to the Dako score, or FISH-amplified.…”

“…Tamoxifen remains the standard adjuvant hormonotherapy in the treatment of MBC with expression of hormonal receptors (the vast majority of the cases) [7,8], as the use of aromatase inhibitors without concomitant suppression of testicular steroidogenesis is not ineffective and did not appear to have a complete estrogen suppression compared to that observed in postmenopausal women (with only a 50% decrease in estradiol level). In addition, therapy with anastrozole raise testosterone levels by 58% with a secondary elevation of estrogen levels (loop effect) [9].…”