PURPOSE: Triple-negative breast cancer, has a significant clinical relevance being associated with a shorter median time to relapse and death and does not respond to endocrine therapy or other available targeted agents. For this reason, identifying the molecular pathways associated with increased aggressiveness, for example the presence of stem cell populations within the tumor and alteration of genes associated with cell cycle regulation represents an important objective in the clinical research into this neoplasm. METHODS: To investigate the role of cell cycle progression inhibitor Geminin in triple-negative breast cancers and its potential correlation with stem-like phenotype of this neoplasm, we used tissue microarray technology to build a specific triple-negative breast cancer tissue micro-array. Geminin and cancer stem cell marker CD133 expression was further investigated at the mRNA level for selected breast tumor samples through realtime polymerase chain reaction quantification. RESULTS: Our results showed that CD133 expression was significantly associated to high Geminin expression (p=0.017), a strong association between Ki-67 and tumor grade (p=0.020) and an inverse association between Geminin expression and lymphonode metastases (p=0.058), and a trend of statistically significance between Geminin marker expression and survival of triple-negative breast cancer patients (p=0.076). CONCLUSION: The strong association between the expression of CD133 and Geminin could be useful in molecular stratification of breast tumors and in particular of triple-negative breast cancers.
Antigens, CD ; Breast ; Breast Neoplasms ; Cell Cycle ; Glycoproteins ; Humans ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Neoplastic Stem Cells ; Peptides ; Phenotype ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Recurrence ; RNA, Messenger ; Stem Cells

This article was initially published on Journal of Breast Cancer with misspelled title of the article.

PURPOSE: Prominin1/CD133 has become the ideal marker for cancer stem cells (CSCs) detection in human tumors. In this study we examined the expression of this marker in several breast cancer specimens to associate CSCs percentage with risk factor for this neoplasia. METHODS: We examined specimens from 12 patients using CD133 and CD44 antibodies for CSCs immunohistochemistry detection and for flow cytometry analysis. For each patient, we also performed the immunohistochemical staining to evaluate the expression of estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, c-erbB-2, Ki67, and E-cadherin markers. A Taqman probe for CD133 was used for mRNA quantification by real-time polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: Prominin-1 expression was heterogeneous in different carcinomas but was strikingly hyperexpressed in a tubulolobular variant of breast cancer. The results were confirmed by all three methods. CONCLUSION: Our data, although produced on a limited number of samples, showed an particularly high expression of stem cell marker CD133 in a breast cancer variant, generally with a good prognosis. Since CSCs detection by CD133 has been described as an important prognostic factor for several human cancers, we suggest the importance of detecting stem cell compartiments in all histotypes of breast carcinomas.
Antibodies ; Antigens, CD ; Breast ; Breast Neoplasms ; Cadherins ; Estrogens ; Flow Cytometry ; Glycoproteins ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Neoplastic Stem Cells ; Peptides ; Prognosis ; Receptors, Progesterone ; Risk Factors ; RNA, Messenger ; Stem Cells

PURPOSE: Prominin1/CD133 has become the ideal marker for cancer stem cells (CSCs) detection in human tumors. In this study we examined the expression of this marker in several breast cancer specimens to associate CSCs percentage with risk factor for this neoplasia. METHODS: We examined specimens from 12 patients using CD133 and CD44 antibodies for CSCs immunohistochemistry detection and for flow cytometry analysis. For each patient, we also performed the immunohistochemical staining to evaluate the expression of estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, c-erbB-2, Ki67, and E-cadherin markers. A Taqman probe for CD133 was used for mRNA quantification by real-time polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: Prominin-1 expression was heterogeneous in different carcinomas but was strikingly hyperexpressed in a tubulolobular variant of breast cancer. The results were confirmed by all three methods. CONCLUSION: Our data, although produced on a limited number of samples, showed an particularly high expression of stem cell marker CD133 in a breast cancer variant, generally with a good prognosis. Since CSCs detection by CD133 has been described as an important prognostic factor for several human cancers, we suggest the importance of detecting stem cell compartiments in all histotypes of breast carcinomas.
Antibodies ; Antigens, CD ; Breast ; Breast Neoplasms ; Cadherins ; Estrogens ; Flow Cytometry ; Glycoproteins ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Neoplastic Stem Cells ; Peptides ; Prognosis ; Receptors, Progesterone ; Risk Factors ; RNA, Messenger ; Stem Cells