Clinicopathological Characteristics Of Basal-like Breast Carcinoma And Its Prognosis

Objective To explore the clinicopathological features and the clinical outcome of basal-like breast carcinoma.Methods A retrospective analysis was performed for 226 women diagnosed and treated for breast cancer in our hospital from 2001 to 2005 with all their clinicopathological features, blocks and follow-up data available.226 slides were immunohistochemical stained by ER, HER2, CK5/6, and CK14 antibodies. Results Invasive ductal breast cancer can be divided into 5 phenotypes (luminal A, luminal B, HER2 overexpression, basal-like, and normal breast-like subtype) by using immunohistochemical staining with ER, HER2, CK5/6, and CK14 antibodies. Basal-like breast carcinoma account for 46 cases (21.4%), its histological grade is prone to be gradeâ…¢. Basal-like breast carcinoma has its unique histological characteristics.The rate of lung and pleural metastases in the basal-like group is higher than that in luminal A, luminal B, HER2 overexpression and normal breast-like subtype groups(P<0.05); The rate of axillary, supraclavicular and infraclavicular lymph nodes metastases in the basal-like breast carcinoma is lower than that in luminal A, luminal B and HER2 overexpression groups. Basal-like breast tumours were associated with shorter disease free-interval(DFI) than luminal A phenotype(ER +)(P<0.05), were associated with shorter overall survival(OS) than both luminal A phenotype( ER + )(P<0.05)and luminal B phenotype(sER +) (P<0.05). Conclusion Basal-like breast carcinoma is an unique phenotype with its own histological characteristics, own clinicopathological features and metastases, the clinical outcome is much poorer than the other phenotypes with both ER positive.