Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Immunohistochemical and molecular subtypes of breast cancer in Nigeria

  • Epidemiology
  • Published:
Breast Cancer Research and Treatment Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objective Previous studies suggest that the majority of breast cancer in Africans are hormone receptor negative and thus differ from breast cancer in other populations. We decided to evaluate the hormone receptor status of patients seen in our practice to see if they indeed differ from that of other populations. Methods We prospectively collected and analyzed tumors from consecutive patients presenting to our clinic over an 18 months period from July 2004. During the period, we saw 192 patients without previous histological diagnosis and conducted routine histological and immunohistochemical analysis of their tumors for hormone receptor status. Results Most, 65.1% of tumors were ER+, 54.7% were PR+ and 79.7% were HER2 negative. Majority of the tumors, 77.6% were luminal type A, 2.6% were luminal type B, 15.8% were basal type and the remaining 4.0% (6/152) were HER2+/ER− subtype. We found an association between hormone receptor status and tumor grade but not with stage at presentation. Conclusion We conclude that there is no difference in the pattern of hormone receptors in breast cancer patients of African origin compared to other populations and urge more use of hormone manipulation for management of breast cancer in this population.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Parkin DM, Ferlay J, Hamdi-Cherif M et al (2003) Cancer in Africa: epidemiology and prevention. IARC Press, Lyon

    Google Scholar 

  2. American Cancer Society (2007) Cancer facts & figures 2007. American Cancer Society, Atlanta

    Google Scholar 

  3. Ihekwaba FN (1992) Breast cancer in Nigerian women. Br J Surg 79:771–775

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Adebamowo CA, Adekunle OO (1999) Case-controlled study of the epidemiological risk factors for breast cancer in Nigeria. Br J Surg 86:665–668

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Anyanwu SN (2000) Breast cancer in eastern Nigeria: a ten year review. West Afr J Med 19:120–125

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Hassan I, Onukak EE, Mabogunje OA (1992) Breast cancer in Zaria, Nigeria. J R Coll Surg Edinb 37:159–161

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Otu AA, Ekanem IO, Khalil MI et al (1989) Characterization of breast cancer subgroups in an African population. Br J Surg 76:182–184

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Chiedozi LC (1985) Breast cancer in Nigeria. Cancer 55:653–657

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Elmore JG, Moceri VM, Carter D, Larson EB (1998) Breast carcinoma tumor characteristics in black and white women. Cancer 83:2509–2515

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Middleton LP, Chen V, Perkins GH et al (2003) Histopathology of breast cancer among African-American women. Cancer 97:253–257

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Mbonde MP, Amir H, Mbembati NA et al (1998) Characterisation of benign lesions and carcinomas of the female breast in a sub-Saharan African population. Pathol Res Pract 194:623–629

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Jones BA, Kasi SV, Curnen MG et al (1997) Severe obesity as an explanatory factor for the black/white difference in stage at diagnosis of breast cancer. Am J Epidemiol 146:394–404

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Miller BA, Hankey BF, Thomas TL (2002) Impact of sociodemographic factors, hormone receptor status, and tumor grade on ethnic differences in tumor stage and size for breast cancer in US women. Am J Epidemiol 155:534–545

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Gukas ID, Jennings BA, Mandong BM et al (2005) Clinicopathological features and molecular markers of breast cancer in Jos, Nigeria. West Afr J Med 24:209–213

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Ikpatt OF, Kuopio T, Ndoma-Egba R, Collan Y (2002) Breast cancer in Nigeria and Finland: epidemiological, clinical and histological comparison. Anticancer Res 22:3005–3012

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Carey LA, Perou CM, Livasy CA et al (2006) Race, breast cancer subtypes and survival in the Carolina Breast Cancer Study. JAMA 295:2492–2502

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Burstein HJ (2005) The distinctive nature of Her2 positive breast cancers. N Engl J Med 353:1652–1654

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Murray E (2005) Breast cancer clinic at Groote Schuur Hospital. In: AORTIC Newsletter, Edition 2005, pp 10–11

  19. Adebamowo CA, Ogundiran TO, Akang EE, Adams-Campbell LL (2003) ER/PR Status of Nigerian Breast Cancer Patients. In: American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting, Edition. AACR, Washington, DC, p 103301

  20. Bertheau P, Cazala-Hatern D, Meignin V et al (1998) Variability of stored immunohistochemical reactivity on stored paraffin slides. J Clin Pathol 51:370–374

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Olapade-Olaopa EO, Mackay HE (1998) Variability of immunohistochemical reactivity on stored paraffin slides. J Clin Pathol 51:943

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Goldstein NS, Ferkowicz M, Odish E et al (2003) Minimum formalin fixation time for consistent estrogen receptor immunohistochemical staining of invasive breast carcinoma. Am J Clin Pathol 120:86–92

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. von Wasielewski R, Mengel M, Nolte M, Werner M (1998) Influence of fixation, antibody clones, and signal amplification on steroid receptor analysis. Breast J 4:22–40

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Ogbimi RI, Adebamowo CA (2006) Questionnaire survey of working relationships between nurses and doctors in University Teaching Hospitals in Southern Nigeria. BMC Nursing 5:2

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Cockburn R, Newton PN, Agyarko EK et al (2005) The global threat of counterfeit drugs: why industry and governments must communicate the dangers. PLoS Med 2:e100

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Mann GB, Fahey VD, Feleppa F, Buchanan MR (2005) Reliance on hormone receptor assays of surgical specimens may compromise outcome in patients with breast cancer. J Clin Oncol 23:5148–5154

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Nichols HB, Trentham-Dietz A, Love RR et al (2005) Difference in breast cancer risk factors by tumor marker subtypes among premenopausal Vietnamese and Chinese women. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 14:41–47

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Schechter AL, Stern DF, Vaidyanathan L et al (1984) The neu oncogene: an erb-B-related gene encoding a 185,000-Mr tumour antigen. Nature 312:513–516

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Slamon DJ, Clark GM, Wong SG et al (1987) Human breast cancer: correlation of relapse and survival with amplification of the HER-2/neu oncogene. Science 235:177–182

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Clark GM, McGuire WL (1991) Follow-up study of HER-2/neu amplification in primary breast cancer. Cancer Res 51:944–948

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Jones BA, Kasl SV, Howe CL et al (2004) African American/white differences in breast carcinoma: p53 alterations and other tumor characteristics. Cancer 101:1293–1301

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. Sørlie T, Perou CM, Tibshirani R et al (2001) Gene expression patterns of breast carcinomas distinguish tumor subclasses with clinical implications. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 98:10869–10874

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Oncology, Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, University College Hospital, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria

    Clement A. Adebamowo, Ayotunde Famooto, Temidayo O. Ogundiran, Toyin Aniagwu & Chibuzor Nkwodimmah

  2. Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, University College Hospital, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria

    Effiong E. Akang

Authors
  1. Clement A. Adebamowo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ayotunde Famooto
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Temidayo O. Ogundiran
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Toyin Aniagwu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Chibuzor Nkwodimmah
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Effiong E. Akang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Clement A. Adebamowo.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Adebamowo, C.A., Famooto, A., Ogundiran, T.O. et al. Immunohistochemical and molecular subtypes of breast cancer in Nigeria. Breast Cancer Res Treat 110, 183–188 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-007-9694-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-007-9694-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation