title: Tumour cell membrane laminin expression is associated with basal-like phenotype and poor survival in Nigerian breast cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Laminin is a glycoprotein with diverse functions in carcinogenesis including cell proliferation, invasion, metastases and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). In breast cancer (BC) laminin expression is speculated to be associated with unfavourable clinicopathological and molecular characteristics. We hypothesize that laminin expression would contributed to the aggressive nature of basal like and triple negative BC phenotype observed in Black women.
  
  
  METHODS
  The expression of laminin was determined in a well-characterised Nigerian cohort of 255 BC using tissue microarray and immunohistochemistry. Laminin expression was compared with clinical, pathological and survival characteristics.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Laminin was expressed in 146 (57.3%) cases and significantly correlated with younger age at diagnosis (p=0.005), premenopausal status (p=0.003), expression of EGFR (p=0.002), ID4 and MTA1, basal cytokeratin 5/6, p53, and triple negative tumours (all p<0.001). In addition, there was an inverse association of laminin expression with E-cadherin (p=0.03), ER and PgR (all p<0.001) and a trend with BRCA1 (p=0.05). Univariate survival analysis showed tumours positive for laminin had significantly poorer breast cancer specific survival (BCSS, p=0.009) and disease free interval (p=0.03), but not associated in Cox multivariate analysis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study demonstrates that laminin expression may have important roles in the aggressive nature observed in the basal-like and triple negative molecular subtype of Nigerian BC women.
authors: Olabisi Onabanjo University, Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences, Department of Morbid Anatomy and Histopathology, Nigeria. johndeji2001@yahoo.co.uk.
authors: A O J
authors: AO
authors: Agboola
authors: H O
authors: HO
authors: Ebili
authors: V O
authors: VO
authors: Iyawe
authors: A A F
authors: AA
authors: Banjo
authors: B S
authors: BS
authors: Salami
authors: E A
authors: EA
authors: Rakha
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Nolan
authors: I O
authors: IO
authors: Ellis
authors: A R
authors: AR
authors: Green
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D044383:Black People; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D007797:Laminin / Q000032:analysis / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009549:Nigeria; D010641:Phenotype; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D046888:Tissue Array Analysis
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D007797:Laminin