Gomal Journal of Medical Sciences (Sep 2015)
EFFECT OF AGE ON PROGNOSIS IN DIFFERENT MOLECULAR SUBTYPES OF FEMALE BREAST CARCINOMA
Abstract
Background: Breast carcinoma is one of the ten commonest worldwide malignancies. The objective of the current study was to correlate the significance of prognostic markers and molecular subtypes with patients’ age in carcinoma of female breast. Material & Methods: A descriptive study was conducted at Department of Pathology, Peshawar Medical College, Peshawar and Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad. Sixty mastectomy specimens were selected using a non-probability sampling method from 1st January, 2012 to 31st December, 2013. Histological type, tumor size, tumor grade and lymph node status were determined. Estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and Her-2/neu expression were evaluated immunohistochemically. Results: Among these 60 patients, the mean age was 50.5±14.4 years. There were 26 (43.3%) patients with age more than 50 years while 24 (40%) were between 40 and 50 years. Ten (16.7%) patients had age less than 40 years. Luminal A molecular subtype was observed in 50% in age groups 40 to 50 and above 50 years. The age group above 50 years had more cases of luminal B (58%) and non-luminal (42%) types. Triple negative molecular subtype is more common in age group between 40 and 50 years i.e. 57.1%. Conclusions: It was concluded that age is an important factor in determining the aggressiveness of female breast cancer along with other markers like, ER, PR and HER2/neu receptor status.
