Prospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Oncol. Nov 24, 2020; 11(11): 935-944
Published online Nov 24, 2020. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v11.i11.935
Assessment of breast cancer immunohistochemistry and tumor characteristics in Nigeria
Usman Malami Aliyu, Abdulrahaman Auwal Musa
Usman Malami Aliyu, Department of Radiotherapy and Oncology, Usmanu Danfodiyo University/Teaching Hospital, Sokoto 840212, Nigeria
Abdulrahaman Auwal Musa, Department of Histopathology, Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, Sokoto 840221, Nigeria
Author contributions: Aliyu UM drafted the methodology and discussion; Musa AA assisted with data analysis and interpretation of the result; Aliyu UM and Musa AA performed the writing and editing for the original manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Research Ethics Committee. The research topic is in line with the rule and regulation of the institution.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors of this manuscript have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Data sharing statement: There are no additional data available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Usman Malami Aliyu, MBBS, Senior Lecturer, Department of Radiotherapy and Oncology, Usmanu Danfodiyo University/Teaching Hospital, No. 1 Garba Nadama Road, Gawon Nama Area, Sokoto 840212, Nigeria. aamusa08033@gmail.com
Received: April 23, 2020
Peer-review started: April 23, 2020
First decision: June 15, 2020
Revised: September 16, 2020
Accepted: October 5, 2020
Article in press: October 5, 2020
Published online: November 24, 2020
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Female breast cancer is the leading type of cancer worldwide with an incidence of approximately 2.1 million in 2018. Hormone receptor status plays a vital role in its management.

Research motivation

Expression of biomarkers to treat breast cancer play a significant role in its management.

Research objectives

To determine the molecular expression pattern of biomarkers in breast cancer and their correlation with tumor variables.

Research methods

This prospective study was designed to analyze expression patterns of estrogen receptor(ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and HER2/neu in breast cancer patients. The dataset was taken from the Department of Radiotherapy and Oncology of Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital Sokoto, Nigeria from 1 January 2015 to 2 December 2019. The dataset had 259 records and 7 attributes. SPSS version 23.0 was used for statistical analysis. The data analyzed demographic and other clinicopathological characteristics as categorical variables. The mean and standard deviation were determined for the quantitative variable.

Research results

A total of 259 breast cancer cases were included in the study. The mean age was 48.3 ± 11.0, with an age range of 26-80 years and a median age of 46 years. The morphological categories were invasive ductal carcinoma (99.6%) and invasive lobular carcinoma (0.4%). Estrogen receptor positivity increased in 73 patients (50.0%) under the age of 50 years. Progesterone receptor positivity increase in 34 patients (23.6%) under the age of 50 years. Human epidermal receptor growth factor 2 positivity decreased in 8 patients (5.6%) under the age of 50 years. Hormone receptors were statistically significant with clinicopathological characteristics (P < 0.05).

Research conclusions

Our study showed that ER, PR and HER2/neu expression had a strong correlation with age, tumor grade, tumor size and lymph node status. Therefore, assessment of hormone receptors for clinical management of a breast cancer patient is strongly recommended to provide prognostic information and therapeutic measurement.

Research perspectives

In low-resource countries, there are paucities in the evaluation of the molecular expression of biomarkers in breast cancer. Therefore, there is a need for further studies to improve prevention and early detection of breast carcinoma in developing countries.