Affiliations of authors: W. D. Foulkes (Program in Cancer Genetics, Departments of Oncology and Human Genetics, and Department of Medicine), P. O. Chappuis (Department of Medicine, and Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre), L. R. Bégin (Departments of Surgery and Pathology); J. R. Goffin (Department of Oncology); N. Wong (Department of Human Genetics, and Cancer Prevention Centre, Sir M. B. Davis-Jewish General Hospital), M. Trudel (Department of Pathology), McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; I. M. Stefansson, L. A. Akslen, Department of Pathology, The Gade Institute, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway.
Correspondence to: William D. Foulkes, MB, PhD, Rm. L10116, Division of Medical Genetics, Department of Medicine, McGill University Health Centre, 1650 Cedar Ave., Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3G 1A4 (e-mail: william.foulkes{at}mcgill.ca).
ABSTRACT
A basal epithelial phenotype is found in not more than 15% of all invasive breast cancers. Microarray studies have shown that this phenotype is associated with breast cancers that express neither estrogen receptor (ER) nor erbB-2 (HER2/neu) (i.e., ER/erbB-2negative tumors). The ER/erbB-2 negative phenotype is also found in breast cancers occurring in BRCA1 mutation carriers (i.e., BRCA1-related breast cancers). We tested the hypothesis that BRCA1-related breast cancers are more likely than nonBRCA1/ 2-related breast cancer to express a basal epithelial phenotype. Among 292 breast cancer specimens previously analyzed for ER, erbB-2, p53, and germline mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2, we identified 76 that did not overexpress ER or erbB-2. Of the 72 specimens with sufficient material for testing, 40 expressed stratified epithelial cytokeratin 5 and/or 6 (5/6). In univariate analysis, the expression of cytokeratin 5/6 was statistically significantly associated with BRCA1-related breast cancers (odds ratio = 9.0, 95% confidence interval = 1.9 to 43; P = .002, two-sided Fishers exact test). Thus, germline BRCA1 mutations appear to be associated with a distinctive breast cancer phenotype.
Breast cancers can be broadly divided into those that express luminal keratins or the so-called simple epithelial-type keratins (such as cytokeratins 7, 8, 18, and 19) and those that express high levels of the stratified epithelial cytokeratins (such as cytokeratins 5, 6, 14, 15, and 17), which are characteristic of the basal epithelial cells of the normal mammary gland. Other markers, such as smooth muscle actin, glial fibrillary acidic protein, and calponin may also be present in basal-like breast cancers (57), which account for between 3% and 15% of all invasive ductal breast cancers of no special type. Conventional histopathologic and molecular studies of breast cancers with basaloid/myoepithelial cell differentiation patterns have shown that these tumors are often high-grade (6), have areas of necrosis (8), may have a typical (7,9) or an atypical (7) medullary phenotype, and have a distinct pattern of genetic alterations (6), including frequent TP53 mutations (10). Most (1013) but not all (9) studies of outcome have also indicated that basal-like breast cancers often have a poor prognosis.
These features are similar to those observed in breast cancers arising in BRCA1 mutation carriers (hereafter BRCA1 carriers) (4,14). The purpose of this study was to determine whether the ER/erbB-2negative basaloid phenotype of breast cancers was, in part, associated with the presence of germline BRCA1 mutations (BRCA1-related breast cancers). Moreover, identification of a basal phenotype for BRCA1-related breast cancer could help identify the cell of origin of these breast cancers.
We studied 292 specimens of first primary invasive breast cancers diagnosed in Ashkenazi Jewish women younger than 65 years at the Sir Mortimer B. Davis-Jewish General Hospital, McGill University, in Montreal between January 1, 1980, and November 1, 1995. The study used an anonymized design whereby the mutation results were separated from any personal identifiers in a manner approved by the Hospital Research Ethics Review Board. All cases were initially classified histopathologically by one pathologist (L. R. Bégin), and samples were immunostained for ER, erbB-2, and p53 proteins. Molecular testing for the three founder mutations, which account for 95% of all germline BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations in this population, was also performed. In this series, we identified 31 BRCA1 carriers and 10 BRCA2 carriers, as described previously (1517). Of the 292 patients, we excluded all 10 BRCA2 carriers because specimens of all but one were positive for ER and/or erbB-2. An additional 14 patients, including two BRCA1 carriers, were excluded because of missing ER and/or erbB-2 data. Of the remaining 268 patients, 29 had BRCA1 mutations (11%), 96 were ER negative (36%), and 238 (89%) did not overexpress erbB-2 as determined by immunohistochemical staining. ER status and erbB-2 status were negatively associated in this series (odds ratio [OR] = 0.23, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.10 to 0.51; P<.001), so only 76 cases (28% of those with complete data) were found to lack staining for both ER and erbB-2, indicating that they might be part of the group of basal-like breast cancers. There were 17 BRCA1 carriers and 55 patients without a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation among the 72 patients with sufficient tissue available for testing. We immunostained these tumors with a mouse anti-human cytokeratin 5/6 monoclonal antibody (clone D5/16 B4; product M 7237; DakoCytomation, Oslo, Norway) (Fig. 1). We defined a staining index (values = 09) as the product of staining intensity (values = 03) and the proportion of immunopositive tumor cells (<10% = 1; 10%50% = 2; >50% = 3). Specimens with staining indices of 19 were defined as positive; those with a staining index of 0 were defined as negative.
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Areas of necrosis are more likely to be observed in BRCA1-related breast cancers than in sporadic breast cancers (22,23). These acellular regions have been observed in high-grade, basal keratinexpressing breast cancers that were prone to metastasize to the lung and brain (8). Consequently, it should be determined whether the basal epithelial phenotype of BRCA1-related breast cancers is associated with the poor prognosis that we (24) and others (2527) observed for BRCA1 carriers with breast cancer. Interestingly, seven of the 72 tumors in this cohort had an atypical medullary phenotype, and four of these seven occurred in BRCA1 carriers. Thus, the relationship of cytokeratins, atypical medullary breast cancer, and outcome should be further investigated in prospective studies.
Because the cytokeratin profile of breast cancer tumors may not change over time (28), the positive cytokeratin 5/6 profile that we observed in BRCA1-related breast cancers is likely to be present ab initio. Furthermore, it has been proposed that breast stem cells in rodents (29) and humans (28) have a cytokeratin 5/6positive profile. The patterns of genetic alterations identified in cytokeratin 5/6positive breast cancers (low-level expression of BCL2, p21Cip1, p27Kip1, ER, progesterone receptor, and erbB-2, combined with high-level expression of Ki-67, epidermal growth factor receptor, and p53) (30) are similar to those observed in the BRCA1-related breast cancers, as described above and elsewhere (4,17,22,31). The inter-relationships between the function of BRCA1 in breast stem cells, in normal breast development, and in breast cancer deserve further consideration. For example, the cleared mammary fat pad model (29) could be used to analyze the behavior of single murine breast cells carrying conditionally regulated alleles of Brca1. This system would enable detailed investigation of the role of both wild-type and mutated BRCA1 in breast development and breast cancer.
Note added in proof. Our conclusion that most BRCA1-related breast cancers show a basal-like phenotype is supported by the recent publication by Sørlie et al. (32), where all 18 BRCA1-related breast cancers had a gene expression profile consistent with a basal-like phenotype. Interestingly, two of the tumors were estrogen receptorpositive. Two BRCA2 tumors, which were also studied, had a luminal phenotype.
NOTES
Present address: P. O. Chappuis, Divisions of Oncology and Medical Genetics, University Hospitals of Geneva, Switzerland.
Present address: J. R. Goffin, Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Medicine, Tufts University, Tufts-New England Medical Center, Boston, MA.
Present address: L. R. Bégin, Hôf.pital du Sacré-Coeur de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
Present address: M. Trudel, Laboratory Medicine, Shaikh Khalifa Medical Center, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Funded by the Canadian Genetic Diseases Network, the Fonds de la Recherche en Santé du Québec (FRSQ) Cancer Network-Breast and Ovarian Tumour Bank Axis, the Susan G. Komen Foundation (W. D. Foulkes), Norwegian Cancer Society, and the Norwegian Research Council (L. A. Akslen).
W. D. Foulkes is a Senior Chercheur Clinicien Boursier of the FRSQ.
We thank Jean-Sébastien Brunet, Lillian Hallseth, Nancy Hamel, Bendik Nordanger, and Ann-Josée Paradis for technical assistance, and Drs. Gilbert Smith and Lawrence Brody for helpful discussions.
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Manuscript received February 20, 2003; revised July 7, 2003; accepted July 15, 2003.
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