title: Increased incidence of ERBB2 overexpression and TP53 mutation in inflammatory breast cancer.
abstract: Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is one of the most aggressive forms of breast cancer. We studied the biological characteristics of these tumours by comparing the overexpression of oncogenes ERBB2, MYC, CCND1 and RHOC and TP53 gene mutation rates in IBC with those found in locally advanced and not otherwise specified breast cancers. The prevalence of the TP53 mutation was much higher in IBC than in the two other types of cancer (57% vs 30). Unexpectedly, however, in IBC tumours, histological grade was independent of TP53 status. In addition, ERBB2 overexpression was twice as frequent in inflammatory as in non-inflammatory tumours, whereas the frequencies of MYC, CCND1 and RHOC overexpression did not vary significantly among the three types of breast cancer. These findings suggest that IBC tumours constitute a distinct subset with a specific pathogenesis. Given the importance of TP53 and ERBB2 in the response to treatments, our observations have important therapeutic implications for the clinical management of IBC patients.
authors.affiliation: Service de Biochimie B and CNRS UPR9051, Hôpital Saint Louis, 1, Avenue Claude Vellefaux, F-75475 Paris Cedex 10, France.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Turpin
authors.forename: Ivan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Bièche
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bertheau
authors.forename: Louis-François
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Plassa
authors.forename: Florence
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lerebours
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: de Roquancourt
authors.forename: Martine
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Olivi
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Espié
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Marty
authors.forename: Rosette
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lidereau
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vidaud
authors.forename: Hughes
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: de Thé
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*; D018734:Genes, erbB-2; D016158:Genes, p53; D006801:Humans