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Positive immunohistochemical expression of bcl-2 in hormone-independent breast carcinomas is associated with a greater lymph node involvement and poor outcome

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Abstract

To study the immunohistochemical expression of bcl-2 in patients with hormone-independent breast infiltrating ductal carcinomas (IDC) and its possible association with other clinico-biological parameters and outcome. Our study group included 72 females with hormone-independent (ER and PgR negative) infiltrating ductal breast carcinomas. Age, tumor size, axillary lymph node involvement (N), distant metastasis and histological grade, as well as the immunohistochemical expression of Ki67, p53 and androgen receptor (AR), were analyzed. We follow up 57 patients during a period of time ranged between 20 and 193 months (80.2 ± 58.3; median 78 months). Of all IDCs included in our study, 18 were ER-/PgR-/bcl-2+ and 54 ER-/PgR-/bcl-2−. The percentages of slightly bcl-2-positive (+) and bcl-2-strong positive (++) cases were 25 and 19 %, respectively, values lower than those observed in ER+/PgR+ tumors (79.3 and 86.8 %, respectively). Breast IDC with positivity (+) for bcl-2 showed, exclusively, greater lymph node involvement higher than 3 nodes (N+ >3) (p 0.021) and a great number of deaths due to the tumor (p 0.011). Same results were obtained when we compared bcl-2-negative and bcl-2-strong positive (++) subgroups. Our results led us to consider that the positive (+ or ++) immunohistochemical expression of bcl-2 in hormone-independent (ER and PgR negative) breast carcinomas is associated with greater axillary lymph node involvement and a greater number of deaths in the follow-up, being these data opposite to that observed in hormone-dependent tumors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Molecular Imaging Group, Faculty of Medicine, University of Santiago Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

    Álvaro Ruibal, Pablo Aguiar & Michel Herranz

  2. Nuclear Medicine Department, University Hospital Santiago Compostela (CHUS), Santiago de Compostela, Spain

    Álvaro Ruibal, Pablo Aguiar & Michel Herranz

  3. Fundación Tejerina, Madrid, Spain

    Álvaro Ruibal

  4. General Laboratory, Hospital Virgen Da Xunqueira, Cee, Spain

    María Carmen Del Río

  5. Surgery Department, Hospital Monte del Naranco, Oviedo, Spain

    Primitiva Menéndez & José Ignacio Arias

  6. Departamento de Psiquiatría, Radioloxía e Saúde Pública, Facultade de Medicina e Odontoloxía, University of Santiago Compostela, R/de San Francisco, s/n, 15782, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

    Pablo Aguiar

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  1. Álvaro Ruibal
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  2. Pablo Aguiar
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  3. María Carmen Del Río
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  4. Primitiva Menéndez
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  5. José Ignacio Arias
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  6. Michel Herranz
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Correspondence to Pablo Aguiar.

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Ruibal, Á., Aguiar, P., Del Río, M.C. et al. Positive immunohistochemical expression of bcl-2 in hormone-independent breast carcinomas is associated with a greater lymph node involvement and poor outcome. Med Oncol 31, 105 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12032-014-0105-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12032-014-0105-6

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