The relevance of the intrinsic subtype to the clinicopathological features and biomarkers in Japanese breast cancer patients

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is a disease rich in diversity, and it can be categorized into the immunohistochemical intrinsic subtypes : ER/PR + and HER2-, ER/PR + and HER2+, HER2 type, basal-like and unclassified. METHODS: In this study, in addition to the clinicopathological features potentially associated with the intrinsic subtypes, protein expression and genetic mutations of key molecules associated with breast cancer prognosis and treatment sensitivity were analyzed. The distribution of subtypes in the patient population and the differences in marker distribution across the subtypes were investigated. RESULTS: The immunohistochemical features of 471 consecutive surgical cases of women with primary breast cancer, treated in a single institution, were examined. There were 306 patients who were ER/PR + HER2- (65%); 41 who were ER/PR + HER2+ (8.7%); 59 with HER2 type (12.5%); 37 with basal-like (7.9%); and 28 patients whose breast cancer was unclassified (5.9%). There were no significant differences between the subtypes regarding age, menopausal status, disease stage, lymphatic invasion, blood vessel invasion and lymph node metastasis. Statistically significant differences were found for histological type and grade. Regarding protein expression and genetic mutation, significant differences were found in the distribution within each subtype for six out of 12 molecules investigated. CONCLUSIONS: This study revealed that subtypes differ not only in their clinical pathological profiles, such as histological types and histological grades, but also in molecular expression. The molecular expression patterns observed for each intrinsic subtype may help the selection of an optimal treatment strategy.