Inflammatory breast cancers in Tunisia and France show similar immunophenotypes.
OBJECTIVE
Inflammatory breast cancers (IBC) have specific immunophenotypic profiles as compared to non-inflammatory (non-IBC): combined differential expression of estrogen receptor, Ki67, E-cadherin, MUC1, and ERBB2 can be used as an IBC signature. It is thought that IBC occurs with a high frequency in Tunisia. The aim of this study is to evaluate this signature on a Tunisian series.


METHODS
The expression of five proteins (E-cadherin, ERBB2, estrogen receptor, Ki67, MUC1) was studied by immunohistochemistry on a consecutive series of 91 cases of IBC (T4D) treated at Tunisian Salah Azaiz Institute (ISA) and deposited in a tissue microarray (TMA). Results were compared to the same study on a series of 85 cases treated in France.


RESULTS
The ISA cases were characterized by a significantly younger age of patients (median: 42 years old in ISA for 53.5 in IPC, p=0.00042) and a higher frequency of invasive micropapillary pattern. None of the five parameters was expressed differentially in the two series. In non-metastatic patients, high level of proliferation (Ki67) and overexpression of ERBB2 were associated with poor outcome.


CONCLUSIONS
The IBC from Tunisia were not different from those observed in France on the basis of IHC profiles. However, the younger age of the patients suggest a specific epidemiological context that should be investigated.
Charafe-Jauffret
Emmanuelle
E
Institut de Cancérologie de Marseille, Département d'Oncologie Moléculaire, Institut Paoli-Calmettes et UMR599 Inserm, IFR137 Marseille, France.
Mrad
Karima
K
Intidhar Labidi
Sana
S
Ben Hamida
Azza
A
Ben Romdhane
Khaled
K
Ben Abdallah
Mansour
M
Ginestier
Christophe
C
Esterni
Benjamin
B
Birnbaum
Daniel
D
Ben Ayed
Farhat
F
Xerri
Luc
L
Viens
Patrice
P
Mezlini
Amel
A
Jacquemier
Jocelyne
J
D000328:Adult; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D015820:Cadherins / Q000378:metabolism*; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D019394:Ki-67 Antigen / Q000378:metabolism*; D008875:Middle Aged; D018396:Mucin-1 / Q000378:metabolism*; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000378:metabolism*; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen / Q000378:metabolism*; D014416:Tunisia
D015820:Cadherins; D019394:Ki-67 Antigen; D018396:Mucin-1; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen; C060192:MUC1 protein, human; C508053:ERBB2 protein, human