Loading

logo

Journal of Cancer Biology

ISSN: 2692-7896

Research Article Open Access
Volume 4 | Issue 1 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.46439/cancerbiology.4.048

Cyclin A2 and Ki-67 proliferation markers could be used to identify tumors with poor prognosis in African American women with breast cancer

Desta Beyene1, Tammey Naab2, Victor Apprey1, Luisel Ricks-Santi3, Ashwini Esnakula4, Mustafa Qasim5, Matthew George6, Karen G Minoza7, Robert L Copeland Jr1,8, Carolyn Broome6, Yasmine Kanaan1,5,*
  • 1Howard University Cancer Center, Washington, DC 20060, U.S.A
  • 2Pathology Department, Howard University Hospital, Washington, DC 20060, U.S.A
  • 3Department of Pharmacotherapy and Translational Research, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, U.S.A
  • 4Department of Pathology, The Ohio State Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH 43210, U.S.A
  • 5Department of Microbiology, Howard University College of Medicine, Washington, DC 20059, U.S.A
  • 6Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Howard University, College of Medicine, Washington, DC 20059, U.S.A
  • 7Division of Trauma, Critical Care and Acute Care Surgery, Department of Surgery, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR 97239, U.S.A.
  • 8Department of Pharmacology, Howard University College of Medicine, Washington, DC 20059, U.S.A.
+ Affiliations - Affiliations

Corresponding Author

Yasmine Kanaan, ymkanaan@howard.edu

Received Date: February 02, 2023

Accepted Date: February 13, 2023

Citation:

Beyene D, Naab T, Apprey V, Ricks-Santi L, Esnakula A, Qasim M, et al. Cyclin A2 and Ki-67 proliferation markers could be used to identify tumors with poor prognosis in African American women with breast cancer. J Cancer Biol. 2023;4(1):3-16.


Copyright: © 2023 Beyene D, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Background: Diagnosed invasive breast carcinomas in African American patients are more aggressive compared with those in Caucasian patients and diagnosed at later stages of the disease with higher grade tumors. Despite advances in breast cancer systemic treatment, new prognostic and predictive biomarkers are still needed. Therefore, potential biomarkers were chosen to correlate with different subtypes, recurrence, and survival of invasive breast cancer in a cohort of African American women.

Methods: Eight protein biomarkers (ER, PR, HER2, Cyclin A2, Cytokeratin 5, Vimentin, Bcl2, and Ki-67) were evaluated using tissue microarrays (TMAs) and immunohistochemistry (IHC). The IHC results from TMAs were analyzed by both supervised and unsupervised clustering methods. The predictive clusters for the supervised and unsupervised methods were compared for agreement with the empirical classification. Kappa values were used to determine the overall percent correct clusters and agreement between specific clusters. Chi-square statistics was used to examine the association between hierarchical and multinomial logistic clustering methods. Results: Five subtypes of breast tumors with distinct protein expression patterns were identified among the studied 166 breast tumors. Luminal B tumors have been distinguished from luminal A tumors by staining for cell cycle proteins Cyclin A2 and Ki-67, which promote cell proliferation. Forty-nine percent were stained positive for Cyclin A2, 39.2% positive for Ki-67, and 37% positive for both Cyclin A2 and Ki-67. The age of patients did not show any significant effect whether five (p-value= 0.576) or eight (p-value= 0.605) biomarkers were used, which indicating that age did not have any influence on the classification of the subtypes. Ninety percent of the thirty triple negative tumors were positive for Cyclin A2 or Ki-67 or both. Six-year overall survival was better for luminal A tumors (76%) than luminal B tumors (71%). Likewise, six-year relapse-free survival was better for luminal A tumors (76%) than luminal B tumors (29%).

Conclusion: Discovery of molecular markers such as Cyclin A2 and Ki-67, and subtypes that are most prevalent in African Americans could lead to a better understanding of the factors contributing to higher morbidity and mortality in this group and to aid in decision-making to offer earlier treatment.

Keywords

African American, Breast cancer, Protein markers, Cluster analysis, Breast cancer subtypes

Recommended Articles

Significance of BRCA genetic testing for preoperative breast cancer patients

Examining BRCA mutations in preoperative breast cancer patients is very important when selecting a surgical procedure. Although there are advantages and disadvantages associated with knowing about the presence of genetic mutations, including for the patient’s family, there are many benefits for the patient. BRCA genetic testing should be recommended for patients who are strongly suspected of being positive for a BRCA mutation. 

BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation variants in early breast cancer confer added prognostic information

Metastatic breast cancer to brain carries poor prognostic features with increased risks of occurrence in Tripple- negative and HER- positive breast tumors. In addition, tumors with mutated BRCA tumors, carry as well increased metastatic incidence. However, new clinical evidence suggest distinct clinical features between BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutated breast cancer and brain metastasis. Review of literature may help characterize the distinctive differences between BRCA1 or BRCA2 breast tumors and subsequent metastasis to brain.

The role of MRI in detecting and characterizing brain metastases from breast cancer

Brain metastases are a feared complication of breast cancer, occurring in 15-25% of patients and being associated with poor prognosis and reduced quality of life. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an advanced technique that uses powerful magnetic fields and radio waves to produce detailed three-dimensional (3D) images of the brain's neuroanatomy and any potential pathology, especially in the management of brain metastases. The review article by Mohammadi et al. provides a timely and comprehensive overview of the utility of MRI for detecting and characterizing brain metastases from breast cancer. 

Identification and validation of N7-methylguanosine-associated gene NCBP1 as prognostic and Prognostic immune-associated biomarkers in breast cancer patients

Epigenetics is the study of heritable modifications to gene expression, such as DNA methylation, histone modifications, and RNA modifications, that do not alter the nucleotide sequence of the corresponding gene. Recently, RNA modification has emerged as a novel research focus. We have detected over 170 different RNA modifications,  such as N6-methyladenosine (m6A), N7-methylguanosine (m7G), 5-methylcytosine (m5C), N1-methyladenosine (m1A), N3-methylcytosine (m3C), and pseudouridine (ψ).These modifications are important for biological processes like RNA metabolism and post-transcriptional regulation. 

Cryoablation is a safe alternative to surgery for low-risk breast cancer

Cryoablation of breast cancer offers an alternative to surgery for women who are not ideal surgical candidates. It is a minimally invasive procedure that has already had success in fibroadenoma treatment with good tumor reduction and cosmesis. The findings of cryoablation as treatment for early-stage, low-risk breast cancer has been previously discussed in the recently published article ‘Cryoablation: A promising non-operative therapy for low-risk breast cancer’.

Full Text
Cite
Download PDF
Author Information X