Immunoexpression of HER family, neuregulin, MAPK and AKT in invasive ductal carcinomas of the breast

Kaya H., Erbarut İ., Özkan N., Bekiroğlu G. N., Şen S., Abacıoğlu U.

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF GYNAECOLOGICAL ONCOLOGY, cilt.29, sa.4, ss.350-356, 2008 (SCI-Expanded)

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 29 Sayı: 4
  • Basım Tarihi: 2008
  • Dergi Adı: EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF GYNAECOLOGICAL ONCOLOGY
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.350-356
  • Marmara Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate the frequency of expression of the erbB/HER family of growth factor receptors, their ligand neuregulinalpha (NRGalpha) and the most important pathways activated by HER receptors that are mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and serine/threonine kinase (AKT) in invasive ductal carcinomas of the breast, not otherwise specified (IDC-NOS).

Methods: 59 of the IDC-NOS of the breast were studied for ER, PR, EGFR, c-erbB-2, c-erbB-3, c-erbB-4, neuregulin Ab-3, phospho-AKT, and phospho-p44/42 map kinase using the streptavidin-biotin horseradish method.

Results: Of the 59 tumours, 44 (75%) were ER+, 37 (63%) PR+, four (7%) EGFR+, seven (12%) c-erbB-2+, seven (12%) c-erbB-3+ and 14 (24%) c-erbB-4+alpha. Strong cytoplasmic and/or nuclear immunoexpression was revealed in 17 (29%) cases for NRGalpha, 13 (22%) cases for p-AKT, and nuclear immunoexpression with p-MAPK was found in 17 (29%) cases.

Conclusion: The results suggest that high-grade breast carcinomas are not only associated with ER/PR- negativity, but seem to be activated by receptor tyrosine kinase growth factors.