Triple negative breast cancer in a poor resource setting in North-Western Tanzania: a preliminary study of 52 patients

BMC Research Notes

Sara Bravaccini¹  Patrizia Serra¹  Philipo Chalya²  Kahima Jackson⁵  Nestory Masalu⁴  Peter Rambau³ 

[1] IRCCS - Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori (IRST), 47014 Meldola, (FC), Italy;Department of Surgery, Bugando Medical Center, Box 1370, Mwanza, Tanzania;Pathology Department, Catholic University of Health and Allied Sciences-Bugando, Box 1464, Mwanza, Tanzania;Department of Oncology, Bugando Medical Center, Box 1370, Mwanza, Tanzania;Department of Pathology, Bugando Medical Center, Box 1370, Mwanza, Tanzania

关键词: North-Western Tanzania;    Triple negative;    Brest cancer;   

Others  :  826537
DOI  :  10.1186/1756-0500-7-399

 received in 2013-12-12, accepted in 2014-06-20,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Background

Breast cancer is the second leading cancer worldwide. In Tanzania, though it ranks as the second leading cancer in women after cervical cancer, hormonal receptor status is not carried out routinely in patients. Adjuvant hormonal therapy is given without prior knowledge of hormonal receptors status and patients can incur unnecessary costs and side effects. This study was performed to investigate the expression of hormonal receptors, epidermal growth factor receptors (HER-2) and proliferation index of the breast cancer by Ki-67 in a few selected patients with breast cancer at referral hospital in North-Western Tanzania. The study classified breast cancer subtypes based on hormonal receptors status and the expression of epidermal growth factor receptors.

Results

A total of 52 cases of breast cancer were investigated. Patients’ mean age at diagnosis was 49 years. The majority of the tumors was invasive ductal carcinoma 47 (90.4%) and 40 (76.9%) were of histological grade III. Thirty-eight (73.1%) of the patient had lymph node metastasis at the time of diagnosis and 36 (69.2%) were at clinical stage III. Only 3 (5.8%) patients were in clinical stage I. There was a tendency of a low level of expression of the receptors, whereby Estrogen Receptor (ER) positive tumors were 17 (32.7%), progesterone receptor (PR) positive tumors were 22 (42.3%), and HER-2 positive tumors were 12 (23.1%). Triple negative tumors constituted 20 (38.4%) of the patients. Most of the tumors (75%) showed high proliferation by Ki-67. Lymph node metastasis was more common in Triple Negative and HER enriched tumors.

Conclusion

This study showed a tendency for a low level of expression of hormonal receptors. There was a significant proportion of Triple Negative breast cancers. Routine testing for hormonal receptors in breast cancer is recommended before the initiation of adjuvant hormonal therapy.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Rambau et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

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