title: Cell cycle alterations and their relationship to proliferation in apocrine adenosis of the breast.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Apocrine adenosis (AA) is generally considered a benign disease of the breast. However, recent studies have suggested a precancerous potential for some of these lesions. The aim was to investigate the status of cell cycle proteins previously reported to be deregulated in breast cancer to identify their possible role in AA.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The cases were categorized into AA without atypia (NAA) and atypical AA (AAA). Using immunohistochemistry, the expression of cyclin D1, cyclin A, p27, p21, p16, pRb and Ki67 was determined in 29 NAA and 16 AAA cases. Cyclin D1, p21 and cyclin A were overexpressed in 58.6%, 51.7% and 31.8% of the NAA cases, respectively, whereas 81.3%, 62.5% and 41.7% of the AAA cases showed overexpression of cyclin D1, p21 and cyclin A, respectively. All cases were negative for p16, whereas pRb was expressed in all cases. Furthermore, proliferation in AA (4.5%) was significantly higher than that of normal breast epithelium (1%). There was no statistical significance in the degree of proliferation between the NAA (3.7%) and AAA (4.8%) groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The study indicates that NAA and AAA are biologically similar. A subset of AA defined by increased proliferation and significant cell cycle alterations may be susceptible to oncogenesis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Histopathology, St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, UK.
authors.forename: Ghada
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Elayat
authors.forename: Abdel-Ghani A
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Selim
authors.forename: Clive A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Wells
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001940:Breast / Q000473:pathology*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism; D002453:Cell Cycle / Q000502:physiology*; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D005260:Female; D005348:Fibrocystic Breast Disease / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008875:Middle Aged; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins