Expression of thyroid transcription factor-1 is associated with a basal-like phenotype in breast carcinomas
Klingen, Tor Audun; Chen, Ying; Suhrke, Pål; Stefansson, Ingunn; Gundersen, Marian D.; Akslen, Lars A.
Peer reviewed, Journal article
Published version
Date
2013-05-15Metadata
Show full item recordCollections
Original version
https://doi.org/10.1186/1746-1596-8-80Abstract
Background: The differential diagnosis between primary and secondary breast cancers might be difficult, especially in poorly differentiated tumors. Thyroid Transcription Factor-1 (TTF-1) has been regarded as a reliable marker for lung or thyroid origin, with only occasional positive staining in other tumors. However, positive cases have recently been reported among primary breast carcinomas. Methods and results: Here, we analyzed expression of TTF-1 protein (clone SPT24) by immunohistochemical staining of sections from paraffin embedded tumor samples in 247 primary breast cancers from the population- based Norwegian Breast Cancer Screening Program. Positive staining (weak or strong) was observed in 7 cases (2,8%). As novel observations, positivity was demonstrated more frequently in estrogen receptor negative cases (14,0% vs. 1,4%; p = 0,004), highly proliferative tumors (8,8% vs. 1,1%; p = 0,008), tumors with a basal-like phenotype by showing expression of CK5/6 and/or P-cadherin (11,1% vs. 1,4%; p = 0,01), and tumors with blood vessel invasion (9,7% vs. 1,9%; p = 0,04). Also, TTF-1 was associated with histological grade 3 tumors compared with grade 1 or 2 tumors (7,7% vs. 1,5%; p = 0,04) as well as lymph node positive cases (5,2% vs. 1,8%; p = 0,03). Conclusions: Our population-based findings indicate that TTF-1 may be positive in approximately 3% of primary breast cancers, and positivity indicates an association with adverse prognostic factors.
Publisher
BioMed CentralJournal
Diagnostic PathologyCopyright
Tor A Klingen et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.Copyright 2013 Klingen et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd