Revista Brasileira de Ginecologia e Obstetrícia (Feb 2009)

Imunofenótipo e evolução de câncer de mama: comparação entre mulheres muito jovens e mulheres na pós-menopausa Immunophenotype and evolution of breast carcinomas: a comparison between very young and postmenopausal women

  • Mara Costa Dutra,
  • Marina Alvarenga Rezende,
  • Victor Piana de Andrade,
  • Fernando Augusto Soares,
  • Márcio Ventura Ribeiro,
  • Élbio Cândido de Paula,
  • Helenice Gobbi

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1590/S0100-72032009000200002
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 31, no. 2
pp. 54 – 60

Abstract

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OBJETIVO: avaliar características clínicas, patológicas e moleculares de carcinomas mamários em mulheres muito jovens em comparação a tumores de mulheres na pós-menopausa. MÉTODOS: foram selecionados 106 casos de câncer de mama de mulheres jovens e 130 casos de mulheres pós-menopausa. Foram analisados dados clínicos (idade ao diagnóstico, estadiamento, ocorrência de metástases, tempo de sobrevida global e livre de doença), anátomo-patológicos (tamanho do tumor, tipo e grau histológico do tumor primário) e marcadores moleculares (receptores de estrógeno e progesterona, HER2, p53, p63, citoqueratinas 5 e 14 e EGFR) com uso da imunoistoquímica empregando microarranjo de tecido. Foi analisada a relação entre as características clínico-patológicas, imunoistoquímicas e de sobrevidas global e livre de doença. RESULTADOS: as pacientes muito jovens apresentaram maior frequência de nuliparidade (p=0,03), maior diâmetro dos tumores (pPURPOSE: the objective of this study was to evaluate the clinical, pathological and molecular characteristics in very young women and postmenopausal women with breast cancer. METHODS: we selected 106 cases of breast cancer of very young women (<35 years) and 130 cases of postmenopausal women. We evaluated clinical characteristics of patients (age at diagnosis, ethnic group, family history of breast cancer, staging, presence of distant metastases, overall and disease-free survival), pathological characteristics of tumors (tumor size, histological type and grade, axillary lymph nodes status) and expression of molecular markers (hormone receptors, HER2, p53, p63, cytokeratins 5 and 14, and EGFR), using immunohistochemistry and tissue microarray. RESULTS: when comparing clinicopathologic variables between the age groups, younger women demonstrated greater frequency of nulliparity (p=0.03), larger tumors (p<0.000), higher stage disease (p=0.01), lymph node positivity (p=0.001), and higher grade tumors (p=0.004). Most of the young patients received chemotherapy (90.8%) and radiotherapy (85.2%) and less tamoxifen therapy (31.5%) comparing with postmenopausal women. Lower estrogen receptor positivity 49.1% (p=0.01) and higher HER2 overexpression 28.7% (p=0.03) were observed in young women. In 32 young patients (29.6%) and in 20% of the posmenopausal women, the breast carcinomas were of the triple-negative phenotype (p=0.034). In 16 young women (50%) and in 10 postmenopausal women (7.7%), the tumors expressed positivity for cytokeratin 5 and/or 14, basal phenotype (p=0.064). Systemic metastases were detected in 55.3% of the young women and in 39.2% of the postmenopausal women. Breast cancer overall survival and disease-free survival in five years were, respectively, 63 and 39% for young women and 75 and 67% for postmenopausal women. CONCLUSIONS: breast cancer arising in very young women showed negative clinicobiological characteristics and more aggressive tumors.

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