The role of IMP3 immunohistochemistry expression in triple-negative breast cancer as a prognostic factor

Abstract

Introduction: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) accounts for 12%–18% of the breast malignancies. An insulin-like growth factor-2 mRNA-binding protein 3 (IMP3) is linked to a number of aggressive malignancies like TNBC. The aim of the study was to evaluate the correlation between IMP3 expression and histopathological parameters in TNBC. Materials and Methods: A prospective and retrospective study between January 2019 and June 2023 was done on 48 TNBC subjects with IMP3 expression. The Chi-square test is applied to investigate the correlations between categorical variables. The Kaplan–Meier (KM) method is applied for survival analysis. Results: Out of 48 subjects, 23 (47.9%) had negative staining, whereas 25 (52.1%) of them expressed strong staining to IMP3. The KM curve for disease-free survival showed that was almost same up to 35 months in both IMP3 negative and cases having strong staining features which was also found to be statistically significant. Conclusion: According to our findings, IMP3 can be employed as a risk predictor for TNBC. Focussing the IMP3 expression could be a viable strategy to managing TNBC with novel immune treatments that are currently unavailable.

Keywords

• breast cancer
• imp3
• triple-negative breast cancer
• tumour markers