title: Oncogene amplification correlates with dense lymphocyte infiltration in human breast cancers: a role for hematopoietic growth factor release by tumor cells?
abstract: One hundred six primary breast cancer samples were analysed for c-erbB2, int-2, and c-myc gene amplification. Surgically confirmed nodal involvement was observed in 42%. Level of gene amplification was studied by Southern and/or slot blot techniques. Amplified c-erbB2 gene sequences were present in 21.5% of all samples. Int-2 was amplified in 13.1% and c-myc was amplified in 10.3%. In a non-parametric test (Kruskal-Wallis) a strong negative association was found between high levels of c-erbB2 amplification and absence of estrogen receptor (ER) (P = .0009) or progesterone receptor (PR) (P = .011) expression. No correlations were found between all or high levels of amplification of each oncogene separately or combined with T, N, grade, multifocality of tumor, or associated carcinoma in situ. There was a trend approaching statistical significance for patients with c-erbB2 amplifications to have positive lymph nodes at surgery (P = 0.09). A somewhat surprising finding however was a very strong association between oncogene amplification and dense lymphocyte infiltration of the tumor (P = .05). This correlation is even stronger when only high levels of amplification are considered, either for each oncogene separately (P = .0048) or in combination (P = .0007). We propose that malignant cell cytokine production may help explain this observation.
authors.affiliation: Département de Médecine Oncologique, Institut Curie, Paris, France.
authors.forename: R P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kacinski
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Validire
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Beuvon
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Sastre
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Benoit
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: dela Rochefordière
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Mosseri
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pouillart
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Scholl
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology*; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005784:Gene Amplification; D016259:Genes, myc / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D016246:Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating; D016173:Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor / Q000032:analysis; D009857:Oncogenes / Q000235:genetics*; D011379:Prognosis; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen / Q000032:analysis; D051153:Wnt Proteins; D029961:Zebrafish Proteins
chemical_list: D016173:Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen; D051153:Wnt Proteins; D029961:Zebrafish Proteins