Basoluminal carcinoma: a new biologically and prognostically distinct entity between basal and luminal breast cancer.
OBJECTIVE
Breast carcinomas expressing basal epithelium cytokeratins constitute a tumor subgroup that is typically hormone receptor negative and shows a distinct gene expression profile. Based on variable basal cytokeratin immunostaining patterns, we hypothesized that the "basal phenotype" tumor group may comprise more than one biological entity.


METHODS
Basal cytokeratins 5 and 14 (CK5/14) were stained by immunohistochemistry and the percentage of positive cells was defined by image analysis. The results thus obtained were compared with clinicopathologic characteristics and relapse-free survival.


RESULTS
Of the 506 breast tumors, 53 (10.5%) showed immunoreactivity for CK5/14. Basal cytokeratin expression showed up as two microscopically distinguishable subtypes, i.e., a uniformly positive type ("basal") and a partially positive type ("basoluminal") often displaying a checkerboard-type intratumoral heterogeneity. These subgroups could also be separated with a third basal cytokeratin (CK17, P < 0.0001). Both basal and basoluminal subtypes were hormone receptor negative and of high grade, but differed with respect to the Ki-67 labeling index (P = 0.0014), vimentin (P = 0.005), and c-kit (P = 0.02), which were more frequently expressed in basal than in basoluminal tumors. In contrast, the amplification of HER-2 was found almost exclusively in the basoluminal subgroup (P = 0.009). Compared with the basal tumors, basoluminal tumors associated with significantly shorter relapse-free survival (P = 0.01), which was not explained by their more frequent HER-2 amplification.


CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that the intratumoral heterogeneity in basal cytokeratin expression can be used to define two distinct breast cancer subtypes, basal and basoluminal, with distinctive features related to proliferation activity, oncogene and biomarker status, and patient survival.
Laakso
Mervi
M
Department of Pathology, Seinäjoki Central Hospital, Seinäjoki, Finland. mervi.laakso@epshp.fi
Tanner
Minna
M
Nilsson
Jonas
J
Wiklund
Tom
T
Erikstein
Björn
B
Kellokumpu-Lehtinen
Pirkko
P
Malmström
Per
P
Wilking
Nils
N
Bergh
Jonas
J
Isola
Jorma
J
D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000145:classification* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000145:classification* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D053547:Keratin-14 / Q000096:biosynthesis; D053555:Keratin-5 / Q000096:biosynthesis; D007633:Keratins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis
D053547:Keratin-14; D053555:Keratin-5; D007633:Keratins