CLINICAL PATHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND PROGNOSTIC FACTORS OF BREAST CANCER WITH HER-2 OVEREXPRESSION IN WESTERN ALGERIA

Background: Breast cancer is a leading cause of cancer related mortality in North African countries. HER-2 over-expression has been associated with a poor prognosis of breast cancer. We assessed HER-2 over-expression pattern in unselected breast cancer cases (from Western Algeria; Northern Africa) in terms of clinical-pathological parameters in order to identify possible correlations between them.

Methods: 628 confirmed cases of breast carcinoma were reviewed between January 2008 and December 2013. Immunohistochemistry assays were used to evaluate HER-2 (human epidermal growth factor receptor 2), ER (Estrogen receptor), and PR (Progesteron receptor) status. Hercep test of score 3+ was considered as positive, those with +2 were further evaluated by FISH.

Results: HER-2 receptor status was found positive in 168 patients (26, 8%) and negative in 460 patients (73,2%). HER-2 overexpression was found to be positively correlated with lymph node status, tumor size, infiltrating ductal carcinomas histologic subtype, histological grade of the disease and estrogen receptor status (p<0.05). However, no appreciable correlation between HER-2 status; patient age, menopausal status and progesterone receptor status was observed (p>0.05).

Conclusion: HER-2 overexpression in women breast cancer from western Algeria was correlated with different aggressiveness parameters, which would suspect a worst prognosis.