Molecular subtype analysis determines the association of advanced breast cancer in Egypt with favorable biology

Abstract

BackgroundPrognostic markers and molecular breast cancer subtypes reflect underlying biological tumor behavior and are important for patient management. Compared to Western countries, women in North Africa are less likely to be prognosticated and treated based on well-characterized markers such as the estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and Her2. We conducted this study to determine the prevalence of breast cancer molecular subtypes in the North African country of Egypt as a measure of underlying biological characteristics driving tumor manifestations.MethodsTo determine molecular subtypes we characterized over 200 tumor specimens obtained from Egypt by performing ER, PR, Her2, CK5/6, EGFR and Ki67 immunohistochemistry.ResultsOur study demonstrated that the Luminal A subtype, associated with favorable prognosis, was found in nearly 45% of cases examined. However, the basal-like subtype, associated with poor prognosis, was found in 11% of cases. These findings are in sharp contrast to other parts of Africa in which the basal-like subtype is over-represented.ConclusionsEgyptians appear to have favorable underlying biology, albeit having advanced disease at diagnosis. These data suggest that Egyptians would largely profit from early detection of their disease. Intervention at the public health level, including education on the benefits of early detection is necessary and would likely have tremendous impact on breast cancer outcome in Egypt.

Molecular Profiling of Breast Carcinoma in Almadinah, KSA: Immunophenotyping and Clinicopathological Correlation

“…This finding is consistent with most worldwide reports from USA, Europe, Asia and Africa (Bhargava et al, 2009;Salhia et al, 2011;Zhu et al, 2014;Cherbal et al, 2015). As reported in many studies (Bhargava et al, 2009;Salhia et al, 2011;Zhu et al, 2014), luminal B was the second common subtype among our cohort.…”

“…This finding is consistent with most worldwide reports from USA, Europe, Asia and Africa (Bhargava et al, 2009;Salhia et al, 2011;Zhu et al, 2014;Cherbal et al, 2015). As reported in many studies (Bhargava et al, 2009;Salhia et al, 2011;Zhu et al, 2014), luminal B was the second common subtype among our cohort. In contrast, our findings are not in keeping with results of some studies from Japan, Tunis and Jordan (Abdelkrim et al, 2010;Shibuta et al, 2011;Shomaf et al, 2013).…”

Are Breast Cancer Subtypes Prognostic for Nodal Involvement and Associated with Clinicopathologic Features at Presentation in Early-Stage Breast Cancer?

“…Although both tumor BCS and pN stage are both independently demonstrated as prognostic (9), there is a paucity of data describing the relationship between these two factors (10,11,12). Consequently, the primary objective of this investigation was to determine if BCS correlates to axillary node involvement in early-stage breast cancer.…”

Breast Cancer in Adolescent and Young Adult Women

“…20 In Iran, 23% of the occurrence of disease was observed in women aged less than 40 years. 21 Likewise, approximately 16% of breast cancer cases were observed in women aged less than 40 years in Egypt 22 and 11% in women aged less than 35 years in Algeria. 23 Because of the dearth of large registries and accurate population data, the trends in Africa are generally more difficult to assess.…”