Comparison of BRCA1 Expression between Triple-Negative and Luminal Breast Tumors

Authors
Farzaneh Darbeheshti 1
Pantea Izadi 1
Amir Nader Emami Razavi 2
Mir Saeed Yekaninejad 3
and Javad Tavakkoly Bazzaz 4
1 Department of Medical Genetics, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
2 Iran National Tumor Bank, Cancer Institute of Iran, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
3 Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
4 Department of Medical Genetics, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences
10.22034/ibj.22.3.210
Abstract
Background: Previous studies have suggested that BRCA1 dysregulation has been shown to have a role in triple-negative phenotypic manifestation. However, differences of BRCA1 expression, as a tumor suppressor gene, have rarely been investigated between luminal and triple-negative breast tumors. Therefore, the present study attempted to compare the BRCA1 expression in triple-negative with luminal breast tumors and its association with the clinicopathologic characteristics of patients. Methods: BRCA1 expression was evaluated by real-time PCR in 26 triple-negative and 27 luminal breast tumors. Results: The results revealed that there is a high frequency of BRCA1 underexpression in both triple-negative and luminal breast tumors. The BRCA1 underexpression was related to young age at diagnosis, lymph node involvement, and grade ІІІ tumors. Conclusion: The observations suggest that decreased BRCA1 expression, regardless of tumor subtype, has a general role in breast malignancy and associated with poor prognostic features in breast tumors.
Keywords
Breast cancer
BRCA1
Triple-negative breast neoplasm