Adisa C A, Eleweke N, Alfred Au A, Campbell M J, Sharma R, Nseyo O, Tandon V, Mukhtar R, Greninger A, Risi J Di, Esserman L J
Department of Surgery, Abia State University Teaching Hospital, Aba, Nigeria.
Ann Afr Med. 2012 Jul-Sep;11(3):169-75. doi: 10.4103/1596-3519.96880.
Compared to the developed world, there are relatively few studies that describe the tumor biology of breast cancer in African women. While little is known about the tumor biology, clinical and epidemiologic studies suggest that breast cancer in African women are characterized by presentation at late stage and poor clinical outcomes. Analysis of the biological features of breast cancers in Nigerian women was designed to bring additional insight to better understand the spectrum of disease, the phenotypes that present, and the types of interventions that might improve outcomes.
We performed histological analyses for hormone receptors (estrogen and progesterone receptors), HER2, and tumor infiltrating macrophages (TAM) on 17 breast cancers, obtained from Abia State University Teaching Hospital (Aba, Nigeria), between November 2008 and October 2009. On a subset of these cases, we investigated the potential role of a virus in the etiology of these aggressive cancers.
The majority of cases in this cohort were characterized as high grade (100% were grade III), triple-negative (65%), and occur in young women (mean age 47 years). We observed high infiltration of TAMs in these tumors, but no evidence of a viral etiology.
Our findings indicate that breast cancers in Nigerian women have a highly aggressive phenotype (high grade, hormone receptor negative), which is similar to other studies from Africa and other developing nations, as well as from African American women, but is significantly different from Caucasian women in the developed world. The presence of high numbers of TAMs in these tumors raises the possibility of targeting the immune microenvironment for therapeutic interventions.
与发达国家相比，描述非洲女性乳腺癌肿瘤生物学的研究相对较少。虽然对肿瘤生物学了解甚少，但临床和流行病学研究表明，非洲女性乳腺癌的特点是就诊时处于晚期且临床预后较差。对尼日利亚女性乳腺癌生物学特征进行分析，旨在提供更多见解，以更好地了解疾病谱、呈现的表型以及可能改善预后的干预类型。
我们对2008年11月至2009年10月期间从阿比亚州立大学教学医院（尼日利亚阿巴）获取的17例乳腺癌进行了激素受体（雌激素和孕激素受体）、HER2和肿瘤浸润巨噬细胞（TAM）的组织学分析。在这些病例的一个子集中，我们研究了一种病毒在这些侵袭性癌症病因中的潜在作用。
该队列中的大多数病例具有高级别（100%为三级）、三阴性（65%）的特征，且发生在年轻女性中（平均年龄47岁）。我们观察到这些肿瘤中TAM的高浸润，但没有病毒病因的证据。
我们的研究结果表明，尼日利亚女性乳腺癌具有高度侵袭性表型（高级别、激素受体阴性），这与来自非洲和其他发展中国家以及非裔美国女性的其他研究相似，但与发达国家的白人女性有显著差异。这些肿瘤中大量TAM的存在增加了针对免疫微环境进行治疗干预的可能性。
