Molecular Subtypes of Breast Cancers from Myanmar Women: A Study of 91 Cases at Two Pathology Centers

Abstract

<br /> <strong><span style="font-size: small;">Background: </span></strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Breast cancer is the most common cancer in Myanmar women. Revealing the hormonal receptor status, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) and Ki-67 expression is useful for estimating patient prognosis as well as determination of treatment strategy. However, immunohistochemical features and classification of molecular subtypes in breast cancers from Myanmar remain unknown. </span></span><strong><span style="font-size: small;">Methods: </span></strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">The clinicopathological features of </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">91 breast cancers from Myanmar women were examined. Immunohistochemistry was performed on tissue specimens with antibodies to estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PgR), HER2, Ki-67, cytokeratin (CK)5/6 and CK14. Immunohistochemistry-based molecular subtyping was conducted. </span></span><strong><span style="font-size: small;">Results: </span></strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Breast cancers in Myanmar women were relatively large, high grade with frequent metastatic lymph nodes. Of the 91 patients, tumors with ER positive, PgR positive, and HER2 positive were 57.1%, 37.4%, and 28.6%, respectively. The most prevalent subtype was luminal B (HER2-) (39.6%), followed by HER2 (22.0%), triple negative (TN)-basal-like (12.1%), luminal A (11.0%), TN-null (8.8%) and luminal B (HER2+) (6.6%). The mean Ki-67 expression of 91 cases was 33.9% (33.9% ± 19.2%) and the median was 28% (range; 4%-90%). The mean Ki-67 expression of luminal A, luminal B, HER2 and TN-basal-like/ null was 7%, 30%, 40%, and 57%/43%, respectively. A higher Ki-67 expression significantly correlated with a higher </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">grade, larger size and higher stage of malignancy. </span></span><strong><span style="font-size: small;">Conclusions: </span></strong><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times New Roman; font-size: small;">We, for the first time, investigated the histopathological features of breast cancers from Myanmar women. Myanmar breast cancers appeared to be aggressive in nature, as evidenced by high frequency of poor-prognosis subtypes with high level of Ki-67 expression. </span></span>