Distinct distribution and prognostic significance of molecular subtypes of breast cancer in Chinese women: a population-based cohort study

BMC Cancer

Research Article

Guoliang Li¹  Yinghao Su¹  Qiuyin Cai¹  Xiao Ou Shu¹  Wei Zheng¹  Zhi Chen¹  Kai Gu²  Ying Zheng²  Wei Lu² 

[1] Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt Epidemiology Center and Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, 2525 West End Ave, Suite 600, 37203-1738, Nashville, TN, USA;Shanghai Institute of Preventive Medicine, 1380 Zhong Shan Road (W), 200336, Shanghai, China;

关键词: Breast Cancer;    Progesterone Receptor;    Molecular Subtype;    Chinese Woman;    Breast Cancer Subtype;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2407-11-292

 received in 2011-02-21, accepted in 2011-07-12,  发布年份 2011

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundMolecular classification of breast cancer is an important prognostic factor. The distribution of molecular subtypes of breast cancer and their prognostic value has not been well documented in Asians.MethodsA total of 2,791 breast cancer patients recruited for a population-based cohort study were evaluated for molecular subtypes of breast cancer by immunohistochemical assays. Data on clinicopathological characteristics were confirmed by centralized pathology review. The average follow-up of the patients was 53.4 months. Overall and disease-free survival by molecular subtypes of breast cancer were evaluated.ResultsThe prevalence of the luminal A, luminal B, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), and triple-negative subtypes were 48.6%, 16.7%, 13.7%, and 12.9%, respectively. The luminal A subtype was more likely to be diagnosed in older women (P = 0.03) and had a stronger correlation with favorable clinicopathological factors (smaller tumor size, lower histologic grade, and earlier TNM stage) than the triple-negative or HER2 subtypes. Women with triple-negative breast cancer had a higher frequency of family history of breast cancer than women with other subtypes (P = 0.048). The 5-year overall/disease-free survival percentages for the luminal A, luminal B, HER2, and triple-negative subtypes were 92.9%/88.6%, 88.6%/85.1%, 83.2%/79.1%, and 80.7%/76.0%, respectively. A similar pattern was observed in multivariate analyses. Immunotherapy was associated with improved overall and disease-free survival for luminal A breast cancer, but reduced disease-free survival (HR = 2.21, 95% CI, 1.09-4.48) for the HER2 subtype of breast cancer.ConclusionsThe triple-negative and HER2 subtypes were associated with poorer outcomes compared with the luminal A subtype among these Chinese women. The HER2 subtype was more prevalent in this Chinese population compared with Western populations, suggesting the importance of standardized HER2 detection and anti-HER2 therapy to potentially benefit a high proportion of breast cancer patients in China.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Su et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.