Possible Relationship between Basal-Like Breast Carcinoma and Age

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Pathology

Background:

• Estrogen receptor (ER) expression is lower in breast cancer among younger women (≤45 years) compared to older women (≥65 years).
• This suggests a potentially higher incidence of basal-like breast carcinomas in younger patient populations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate differences in the frequency of basal-like phenotype and ER-/HER2- invasive breast carcinomas between two distinct age groups: women ≤45 years and women ≥65 years.

Main Methods:

• A cohort of 151 women with invasive breast carcinomas was analyzed.
• Patients were categorized into age groups (≤45 years or ≥65 years).
• Tumor phenotypes were classified using tissue microarray, including luminal A (ER+/HER2-), luminal B (ER+/HER2+), HER2 overexpression (ER-/HER2+), and basal-like (ER-/HER2- with specific basal markers).

Main Results:

• ER-/HER2- invasive breast carcinomas were found to be twice as frequent in women aged ≤45 years compared to women aged ≥65 years (p = 0.0247).
• When comparing the basal-like phenotype against all other phenotypes combined, no statistically significant difference was observed between the age groups (p = 0.0854).

Conclusions:

• ER-/HER2- invasive breast carcinomas demonstrate a higher prevalence in younger women compared to other breast cancer phenotypes.
• Establishing a universal consensus on the defining markers for the basal-like breast cancer phenotype is crucial for accurate classification and future research.