Does GLUT-1 have a Role in Prognosis of Breast Carcinoma of Egyptian Patients?

Abstract

Introduction: Breast Cancer (BC) is the most common malignancy in females worldwide. It constitutes 38.8% of all malignant tumours among Egyptian females. Triple negative breast cancer has not confirmed therapeutic molecular target and has a poor prognosis, so identification of new biological key pathways might aid in finding targets of potential interest for therapeutic blockade. Glucose transporter 1 (GLUT-1) has important role in the transport of glucose in malignant cells and overexpressed in different types of human cancers but its expression in breast carcinoma tissues is controversial. Aim: To evaluate the role of GLUT-1 in breast carcinoma in Egyptian patients. Materials and Methods: Retrospective study included 79 Invasive Duct Carcinoma (IDC) specimens retrieved from the archival cases of Pathology Department, faculty of medicine, Menoufia University, Egypt, spanning the period between January, 2010 and December, 2017. All cases were stained for GLUT-1 antibody. Results: Eighty percent of the studied IDC cases showed positive GLUT-1 expression, positive cases are divided into +1, +2 and +3 and 55% of positive cases were +3. There was a highly statistical significant association between positive GLUT-1 expression and advanced nodal stage (p=0.001) and advanced T stage (p=0.000). Furthermore, there was a highly statistical significant association between positive GLUT-1 expression and poor degree of differentiation (Grade III) (p=0.000). Moreover, there was a statistical significant association between (+3) GLUT-1 positivity and advanced stage (III and IV) (p=0.018). Also, there is a trend of significance between GLUT-1 expression and hormonal status as 94.1% of triple negative cases showed positive GLUT-1 expression (p=0.078). There was no statistical association between GLUT-1 expression and overall survival and univariate survival analysis revealed the bad prognostic impact of negative hormonal status (p=0.002). Conclusion: GLUT-1 is a poor prognostic marker in view of association between positive GLUT-1 expression and advanced nodal stage, advanced T stage, advanced stage grouping (III and IV) and poor degree of differentiation (Grade). Furthermore, inhibition of GLUT-1 might play a therapeutic role for triple negative breast cancer.

Keywords

• immunohistochemistry
• invasive duct carcinoma
• prognostic marker