Authors: AnChi Lo Celina G Kleer Mousumi Banerjee Sherif Omar Hussein Khaled Saad Eissa Ahmed Hablas Julie A Douglas Sharon H Alford Sofia D Merajver Amr S Soliman
Publish Date: 2007/12/04
Volume: 112, Issue: 1, Pages: 141-147
Abstract
Background Inflammatory breast cancer IBC is a lethal form of breast cancer with unknown etiology A higher frequency of IBC and a more aggressive IBC phenotype was reported in Egypt than in the United States This difference in disease frequency and presentation might be related to molecular epidemiologic factors Methods We used tumor blocks and demographic epidemiologic and clinical data of 48 IBC patients from Egypt and 12 patients from the United States We counted tumor emboli in tumors before and after immunohistochemical staining with lymphatic vessel endothelial receptor1 LYVE1 and measured the expression of RhoC GTPase protein in the two groups Results Erythema edema and peau d’orange were found in 77 of the Egyptian patients as compared with 29 found in the US patients P = 002 The number of tumor emboli was significantly higher in tumors from Egypt mean ± SD 141 ± 140 than in the tumors from the United States 50 ± 40 P = 001 The number of tumor emboli in LYVE1 positive vessels was higher in tumors from Egypt 35 ± 28 than tumors from the United States 16 ± 05 P = 015 We detected a high level of RhoC in 87 of the tumors from Egypt and 14 of the tumors from the United States P = 00003 Conclusion Patients from Egypt have a more aggressive form of IBC than those in the United States Our analysis of IBC patients shows that distinct molecular phenotypes can be found when these two study populations are compared Future studies should explore the epidemiologic and environmental exposures and the genetic factors that might lead to the different clinical and molecular features of IBC in patients from these two countriesGrant CA77612 the Burroughs Wellcome Fund the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and the Department of Defense R25 CA112383 K07 CA90241 and R03 CA117350 the University of Michigan’s Cancer Center Support Grant 5 P30 CA46592 from the National Cancer Institute
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