Journal of Clinical Pathology 2008;61:615-620
ORIGINAL ARTICLES
Reduction of E-cadherin expression is associated with non-lobular breast carcinomas of basal-like and triple negative phenotype
Molecular Pathology Laboratory, The Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre, Institute of Cancer Research, London, UK
Correspondence to:
Jorge S Reis-Filho, The Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre, Institute of Cancer Research, 237 Fulham Road, London SW3 6JB, UK; Jorge.Reis-Filho{at}icr.ac.uk
Aim: E-cadherin inactivation in breast cancer has been shown to be strongly associated with lobular breast cancer. However, little is known about the levels of E-cadherin expression according to the breast cancer "molecular" subtypes. The aim of this study was to address the distribution of E-cadherin expression according to the different molecular subtypes of breast cancer.
Methods: E-cadherin expression was immunohistochemically analysed in a tissue microarray containing duplicate cores of 245 invasive breast carcinomas, of which 182 cases were of non-lobular histology, using a semi-quantitative scoring system based on the percentage of cells showing membrane immunopositivity.
Results: In non-lobular breast carcinomas, reduced and/or negative E-cadherin expression was significantly associated with lack of oestrogen receptor expression, low levels of CCND1 expression, positivity for cytokeratins 5/6 and 17, epidermal growth factor receptor and caveolins 1 and 2, p53 expression, high MIB-1 proliferation indices, basal-like phenotype and triple negative phenotype.
Conclusion: This study demonstrates that in the group of non-lobular breast cancers, reduction/lack of E-cadherin expression is preferentially found in basal-like breast carcinomas.
This article has been cited by other articles:
-
Linderholm, B. K., Hellborg, H., Johansson, U., Elmberger, G., Skoog, L., Lehtio, J., Lewensohn, R.
(2009). Significantly higher levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and shorter survival times for patients with primary operable triple-negative breast cancer. Ann Oncol
0: mdp062v1-mdp062
[Abstract] [Full Text] -
Koo, J. S., Jung, W., Jeong, J.
(2009). The Predictive Role of E-cadherin and Androgen Receptor on In Vitro Chemosensitivity in Triple-negative Breast Cancer. Jpn J Clin Oncol
0: hyp065v1-hyp065
[Abstract] [Full Text]
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
