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Basoluminal carcinoma: A new biologically and prognostically distinct entity between basal and luminal breast cancer

Laakso, Mervi ; Tanner, Minna ; Nilsson, Jonas ; Wiklund, Tom ; Erikstein, Bjoern ; Kellokumpu-Lehtinen, Pirkko ; Malmström, Per LU ; Wilking, Nils ; Bergh, Jonas and Isola, Jorma (2006) In Clinical Cancer Research 12(14). p.4185-4191
Abstract
Purpose: Breast carcinomas expressing basal epithelium cytokeratins constitute a tumor subgroup that is typically hormone receptor negative and shows a distinct gene expression profile. Based on variable basal cytokeratin immunostaining patterns, we hypothesized that the "basal phenotype" tumor group may comprise more than one biological entity. Experimental Design: Basal cytokeratins 5 and 14 (CK5/14) were stained by immunohistochemistry and the percentage of positive cells was defined by image analysis. The results thus obtained were compared with clinicopathologic characteristics and relapse-free survival. Results: Of the 506 breast tumors, 53 (10.5%) showed immunoreactivity for CK5/14. Basal cytokeratin expression showed up as two... (More)
Purpose: Breast carcinomas expressing basal epithelium cytokeratins constitute a tumor subgroup that is typically hormone receptor negative and shows a distinct gene expression profile. Based on variable basal cytokeratin immunostaining patterns, we hypothesized that the "basal phenotype" tumor group may comprise more than one biological entity. Experimental Design: Basal cytokeratins 5 and 14 (CK5/14) were stained by immunohistochemistry and the percentage of positive cells was defined by image analysis. The results thus obtained were compared with clinicopathologic characteristics and relapse-free survival. Results: Of the 506 breast tumors, 53 (10.5%) showed immunoreactivity for CK5/14. Basal cytokeratin expression showed up as two microscopically distinguishable subtypes, i.e., a uniformly positive type ("basal") and a partially positive type ("basoluminal") often displaying a checkerboard-type intratumoral heterogeneity. These subgroups could also be separated with a third basal cytokeratin (CK17, P < 0,0001). Both basal and basoluminal subtypes were hormone receptor negative and of high grade, but differed with respect to the Ki-67 labeling index (P = 0.0014), vimentin (P = 0.005), and c-kit (P = 0.02), which were more frequently expressed in basal than in basoluminal tumors. In contrast, the amplification of HER-2 was found almost exclusively in the basoluminal subgroup (P = 0.009). Compared with the basal tumors, basoluminal tumors associated with significantly shorter relapse-free survival (P = 0.01), which was not explained by their more frequent HER-2 amplification. Conclusions: We conclude that the intratumoral heterogeneity in basal cytokeratin expression can be used to define two distinct breast cancer subtypes, basal and basoluminal, with distinctive features related to proliferation activity, oncogene and biomarker status, and patient survival. (Less)
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author
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Clinical Cancer Research
volume
12
issue
14
pages
4185 - 4191
publisher
American Association for Cancer Research
external identifiers
  • wos:000239373200010
  • scopus:33847648254
ISSN
1078-0432
DOI
10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-06-0353
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
fbee3f8c-36c2-42f6-9a3c-d159d577e673 (old id 399595)
alternative location
http://clincancerres.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/12/14/4185
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 12:13:40
date last changed
2022-03-28 22:02:19
@article{fbee3f8c-36c2-42f6-9a3c-d159d577e673,
  abstract     = {{Purpose: Breast carcinomas expressing basal epithelium cytokeratins constitute a tumor subgroup that is typically hormone receptor negative and shows a distinct gene expression profile. Based on variable basal cytokeratin immunostaining patterns, we hypothesized that the "basal phenotype" tumor group may comprise more than one biological entity. Experimental Design: Basal cytokeratins 5 and 14 (CK5/14) were stained by immunohistochemistry and the percentage of positive cells was defined by image analysis. The results thus obtained were compared with clinicopathologic characteristics and relapse-free survival. Results: Of the 506 breast tumors, 53 (10.5%) showed immunoreactivity for CK5/14. Basal cytokeratin expression showed up as two microscopically distinguishable subtypes, i.e., a uniformly positive type ("basal") and a partially positive type ("basoluminal") often displaying a checkerboard-type intratumoral heterogeneity. These subgroups could also be separated with a third basal cytokeratin (CK17, P &lt; 0,0001). Both basal and basoluminal subtypes were hormone receptor negative and of high grade, but differed with respect to the Ki-67 labeling index (P = 0.0014), vimentin (P = 0.005), and c-kit (P = 0.02), which were more frequently expressed in basal than in basoluminal tumors. In contrast, the amplification of HER-2 was found almost exclusively in the basoluminal subgroup (P = 0.009). Compared with the basal tumors, basoluminal tumors associated with significantly shorter relapse-free survival (P = 0.01), which was not explained by their more frequent HER-2 amplification. Conclusions: We conclude that the intratumoral heterogeneity in basal cytokeratin expression can be used to define two distinct breast cancer subtypes, basal and basoluminal, with distinctive features related to proliferation activity, oncogene and biomarker status, and patient survival.}},
  author       = {{Laakso, Mervi and Tanner, Minna and Nilsson, Jonas and Wiklund, Tom and Erikstein, Bjoern and Kellokumpu-Lehtinen, Pirkko and Malmström, Per and Wilking, Nils and Bergh, Jonas and Isola, Jorma}},
  issn         = {{1078-0432}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{14}},
  pages        = {{4185--4191}},
  publisher    = {{American Association for Cancer Research}},
  series       = {{Clinical Cancer Research}},
  title        = {{Basoluminal carcinoma: A new biologically and prognostically distinct entity between basal and luminal breast cancer}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-06-0353}},
  doi          = {{10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-06-0353}},
  volume       = {{12}},
  year         = {{2006}},
}