Biology of oestrogen-receptor positive primary of core needle biopsy samples and correlation with clinical outcome

Parks, Ruth M.; Albanghali, Mohammad; Syed, Binafsha M.; Green, Andrew R.; Ellis, Ian O.; Cheung, Kwok Leung

Abstract

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. The majority of biological profiling studies use surgical excision (SE) samples, excluding patients receiving nonsurgical and neoadjuvant therapy. We propose using core needle biopsy (CNB) for biological profiling in older women. Over 37 years (1973–2010), 1 758 older (≥70 years) women with operable primary breast cancer attended a dedicated clinic. Of these, 693 had sufficient quality CNB to construct tissue microarray (TMA). The pattern of biomarkers was analysed in oestrogen receptor (ER)-positive cases, using immunohistochemistry and partitional clustering analysis. The biomarkers measured were: progesterone receptor (PgR), Ki67, Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR), Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (HER)-2, HER3, HER4, p53, cytokeratins CK5/6 and CK7/8, Mucin (MUC)1, liver kinase B1 (LKB1), Breast Cancer Associated gene (BRCA) 1, B-Cell Lymphoma (BCL)-2, phosphate and tensin homolog (PTEN), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and Amplified in breast cancer 1 (AIB1). CNB TMA construction was possible in 536 ER-positive cases. Multivariate analysis showed progesterone receptor (PgR) (p = 0.015), Ki67 (p = 0.001), and mucin (MUC)1 (p = 0.033) as independent predictors for breast-cancer-specific survival (BCSS). Cluster analysis revealed three biological clusters, which were consistent with luminal A, luminal B, and low-ER luminal. The low-ER luminal cluster had lower BCSS compared to luminal A and B. The presence of the low-ER luminal cluster unique to older women, identified in a previous study in SE TMAs in the same cohort, is confirmed. This present study is novel in its use of core needle biopsy tissue microarrays to profile the biology of breast cancer in older women.

Citation

Parks, R. M., Albanghali, M., Syed, B. M., Green, A. R., Ellis, I. O., & Cheung, K. L. (2020). Biology of oestrogen-receptor positive primary of core needle biopsy samples and correlation with clinical outcome. Cancers, 12(8), Article 2067. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers12082067

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 23, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Jul 27, 2020
• Publication Date: Aug 1, 2020
• Deposit Date: Jul 28, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 28, 2020
• Journal: Cancers
• Electronic ISSN: 2072-6694
• Publisher: MDPI
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 12
• Issue: 8
• Article Number: 2067
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers12082067
• Keywords: Cancer Research; Oncology
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/4793564
• Publisher URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6694/12/8/2067