Prevalence of Breast Cancer Intrinsic Subtypes and Its Association with Clinico-Pathological Feature

Abstract

Rufina Soomro, NailaZahid and Nadeemkhurshaidi

Breast cancer is the commonest cancer in women worldwide and represents a highly heterogeneous group of tumours particularly in terms of molecular features, prognosis and response to therapy.

Breast cancer molecular classification can predict the prognosis of breast cancer in terms of recurrence and help and guide us regarding the treatment decision about systemic therapy. Breast carcinomas may be stratified into subtypes similar to those defined by Gene expression profiling using a panel of immune-histochemical (IHC) markers. Routine IHC evaluations of breast cancers may, therefore, provide a reasonable alternative to costly genetic assays especially in under-resourced healthcare systems. The purpose of this study is to investigate the prevalence of molecular subtypes and correlate it to clinic-pathological features.

Methods: From 2005 to 2017 total of 4847 Breast cancer patients, in whom complete information was available to classify them into luminal subtypes were retrieved and classified into intrinsic subtypes and patients information in each type was collected about age, tumour size, stage, grade and nodal status.

Results: In luminal classification, a highly significant difference was found in mean age (p<0.001) tumour size (p<0.001), grade, metastasis and Ki67. The statistical significance of Her 2 positive and triple negative was found with stage, grade, metastasis and Ki67.

Conclusions: IHC assignment into Luminal subtypes is clinically informative in our patients and routinely using this in our practice could identify patients that may need a more aggressive treatment to reduce the likelihood of recurrences.

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