Triple-negative breast cancer: immunohistochemical correlation with basaloid markers and prognostic value of survivin

Objective Among the subgroups of breast cancer, basaloid type has the shortest disease-free survival. Survivin is an apoptosis inhibitor and its prognostic and predictive value in breast cancer is under investigation. In this study, we examined the basaloid markers CK5/6, CK14, CK17, and EGFR in triplet-negative patients and evaluated the impact of survivin on survival. Materials and methods Thirty patients with breast cancer in triplet-negative form admitted to Erciyes University Medical Oncology Department between 2001 and 2005 were included in the study. Median follow up and age were 45 months (range 5–76 months) and 47 years (range 23–76), respectively. Eighteen patients (60%) were premenopausal and 12 (40%) were postmenopausal. In total, 2, 12, and 14 patients had stage I, II, and III disease, respectively. When cytokeratines and survivin were analyzed independently, association between CK5/6 positivity and lymph node involvement was statistically significant (P = 0.014). In 70% of patients, CK5/6 or EGFR was found positive, and positive results were only had statistically significant correlation with age and menopausal status (P = 0.049 and 0.049, respectively). Ten patients (33.3%) totally and nine patients (42.8%) in the basaloid subgroup had positive staining for survivin. Survivin was not correlated with any of the clinical or histopathological features. While correlation between the number of involved lymph nodes, lymphovascular invasion, histopathological grade, and disease-free survival was statistically significant (P = 0.036, 0.002, and 0.035, respectively), this is not valid for CK5/6, EGFR, and survivin. Conclusion CK5/6 or EGFR was accepted as determinants of basaloid breast cancer. The correlation between basaloid form and other histopathological markers did not reveal any significant difference with respect to prognostic and clinical parameters. We were unable to demonstrate the prognostic impact of survivin in patients with basaloid form or triplet-negative breast cancer.