Kanapathy Pillai Shant Kishen, Tay Annie, Nair Suseela, Leong Chee-Onn
School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, International Medical University, Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, 57000, Malaysia.
BMC Clin Pathol. 2012 Sep 26;12:18. doi: 10.1186/1472-6890-12-18.
Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a heterogeneous subgroup of breast cancer characterized by the lack of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) expressions. This subgroup of refractory disease tends to have aggressive clinical behavior, high frequency of metastasis and lack of response to current hormonal or targeted therapies. Despite numerous studies reporting the clinicopathological features of TNBC and its association with the basal-like phenotype in the Western population, only limited data are available in the Asian population. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the clinicopathological characteristics of TNBC and its association with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), cytokeratin 5/6 (CK5/6) and mast/stem cell growth factor receptor (c-KIT or CD117) expression in Malaysian women.
A total of 340 patients diagnosed with primary breast cancer between 2002 and 2006 in Malaysia were reviewed and analyzed.
The incidence of TNBC was 12.4% (42/340). Bivariate analysis revealed that TNBC was strongly associated with a younger age, higher grade tumor and p53 expression. Further immunohistochemical analysis suggested that TNBC in Malaysian women was strongly associated with EGFR, CK5/6 and c-KIT expression with high a Ki-67 proliferation index.
In conclusion, our study confirms the association of TNBC with basal-like marker expression (EGFR, CK5/6 and c-KIT) in Malaysian women, consistent with studies in other populations.
三阴性乳腺癌（TNBC）是乳腺癌的一个异质性亚组，其特征是缺乏雌激素受体（ER）、孕激素受体（PR）以及人表皮生长因子受体2（HER2）表达。这一难治性疾病亚组往往具有侵袭性临床行为、高转移频率且对当前激素或靶向治疗无反应。尽管有大量研究报道了西方人群中TNBC的临床病理特征及其与基底样表型的关联，但亚洲人群中的相关数据有限。因此，本研究旨在调查马来西亚女性中TNBC的临床病理特征及其与表皮生长因子受体（EGFR）、细胞角蛋白5/6（CK5/6）和肥大/干细胞生长因子受体（c-KIT或CD117）表达的关联。
对2002年至2006年间在马来西亚诊断为原发性乳腺癌的340例患者进行回顾性分析。
TNBC的发病率为12.4%（42/340）。双变量分析显示，TNBC与年轻、高分级肿瘤和p53表达密切相关。进一步的免疫组化分析表明，马来西亚女性的TNBC与EGFR、CK5/6和c-KIT表达密切相关，Ki-67增殖指数较高。
总之，我们的研究证实了马来西亚女性中TNBC与基底样标志物表达（EGFR、CK5/6和c-KIT）的关联，这与其他人群的研究结果一致。
