Molecular and Immunohistochemical Alterations in Breast Cancer Patients in Upper Egypt

Breast cancer (BC) plays a major public health in Egyptian woman. In Upper Egypt, there is an increase in incidence of BC compared to other Egyptian areas. Triple-negative BC, estrogen receptor (ER)-negative, progesterone receptor (PR)-negative, and HER2-neu-negative, is a high-risk BC that lacks the benefit of specific therapy that targets these proteins. Accurate determination of Caveolin-1(Cav-1), Caveolin-2 (Cav-2) and HER-2/neu status have become of major clinical significance in BC by focusing about its role as a tumor marker for response to different therapies.

The present study was performed on 73 female BC patients in the South Egypt Cancer Institute. Blood samples were used for Cav-1, Cav-2, and HER-2/neu genes amplification and expression. In addition, immunohistological analysis of mammaglobin, GATA3, ER, PR, and HER-2/neu was done.

There was a statistically significant association between Cav-1, 2 and HER-2/neu genes expression and the age of patients (P< 0.001). There are increase in the level of Cav-1, 2 and increase in HER-2/neu mRNA expression in groups treated with chemotherapy and group treated with both chemotherapy and radiotherapy compared to each group baseline level of genes mRNA expression before treatment. On the contrary, the group treated with chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormonal therapy revealed increase on the level of Cav-1, 2 and HER-2/neu mRNA expression when compared with their baseline for the same patients before treatment.

Noninvasive molecular biomarkers such as Cav-1 and Cav-2 have been proposed for use in the diagnosis and prognosis for women with BC.