Voutsadakis Ioannis A
Algoma District Cancer Program, Sault Area Hospital, Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, Canada; Division of Clinical Sciences, Section of Internal Medicine, Northern Ontario School of Medicine, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.
Clin Breast Cancer. 2025 Apr;25(3):214-222. doi: 10.1016/j.clbc.2024.11.020. Epub 2024 Dec 3.
In the era of personalized oncology biomarkers that identify subgroups of specific cancers and help predict response to specific therapies are critical tools for prognosis determination and therapeutic decisions. The Estrogen Receptor (ER) had been one of the first biomarkers used in breast cancer and has helped advance the field of breast oncology by contributing to the success of hormonal therapies for the ER positive subgroup of the disease. Expression of the receptor in 1% or more of tumor cells in immunohistochemical sections define currently the ER positive subgroup of breast cancers, which may be treated with regimens that include hormonal inhibitors. The highest sensitivity and benefit of hormonal therapies is observed in cancers with robust ER expression (in 90% to 100% of tumor cells). However, it has become clear that the subgroup of breast cancers with low ER expression (in 1% to 10% of tumor cells) behaves similarly to ER negative breast cancers and has an inferior response to hormonal therapies. The behavior of the rest of ER positive breast cancers with an intermediate ER expression between these 2 extremes (ER expression between 10% and 90%) is less well described and their response to estrogen targeting therapies is less clear. Breast cancers with intermediate ER expression represent a small subgroup of ER positive breast cancers and the wide range of expressions suggests heterogeneity. This review will discuss this subgroup of ER positive breast cancers and examine their genomic landscape and therapeutic repercussions.
在个性化肿瘤生物标志物时代,能够识别特定癌症亚组并有助于预测对特定疗法反应的生物标志物是预后判定和治疗决策的关键工具。雌激素受体(ER)一直是乳腺癌中最早使用的生物标志物之一,通过推动针对该疾病ER阳性亚组的激素疗法取得成功,助力了乳腺肿瘤学领域的发展。免疫组化切片中肿瘤细胞1%或更多表达该受体目前定义为乳腺癌的ER阳性亚组,这类癌症可用包含激素抑制剂的方案治疗。在ER表达强烈(肿瘤细胞的90%至100%)的癌症中观察到激素疗法的最高敏感性和益处。然而,现已明确,ER低表达(肿瘤细胞的1%至10%)的乳腺癌亚组与ER阴性乳腺癌表现相似,对激素疗法反应较差。这两个极端之间ER表达中等(ER表达在10%至90%之间)的其余ER阳性乳腺癌的行为描述较少,它们对雌激素靶向疗法的反应也不太明确。ER表达中等的乳腺癌代表ER阳性乳腺癌的一个小亚组,广泛的表达提示了异质性。本综述将讨论这一ER阳性乳腺癌亚组,并研究其基因组格局和治疗影响。