ER-/PR+ breast cancer: a distinct entity, which is morphologically and molecularly close to triple-negative breast cancer.

Fiche publication

Date publication

février 2021

Journal

International journal of cancer

Auteurs

Membres identifiés du Cancéropôle Est :
Dr ARNOULD Laurent , Dr BERTAUT Aurélie , Dr BOIDOT Romain , Dr LADOIRE Sylvain , Dr DESMOULINS Isabelle , Dr CHARON-BARRA Céline

Tous les auteurs :
Beltjens F, Molly D, Bertaut A, Richard C, Desmoulins I, Loustalot C, Charon-Barra C, Courcet E, Bergeron A, Ladoire S, Jankowski C, Boidot R, Arnould L

Lien Pubmed

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33634878

Résumé

Determining the status of steroid hormone receptors (oestrogen (ER) and progesterone receptors (PR)) is a crucial part of the breast cancer workup. Thereby, breast cancers can be classified into four subtypes. However, the existence of ER-/PR+ tumours, often reported to be ill-classified due to technical errors, remains controversial. In order to address this controversy, we reviewed the hormone receptor status of forty-nine breast tumours previously classified as ER-/PR+ by immunohistochemistry, and compared clinical, pathological, and molecular characteristics of confirmed ER-/PR+ tumours with those of ER+ and triple-negative tumours. We unequivocally confirmed the ER-/PR+ status in 27 of 49 tumours (0.3% of all breast cancers diagnosed in our institution between 2000 and 2014). We found that ER-/PR+ were morphologically and histologically similar to triple-negative tumours, but very distinct from ER+ tumours, with more aggressive phenotypes and more frequent basal marker expression than the latter. On the molecular level, RNA sequencing revealed different gene expression profiles between the three groups. Of particular interest, several genes controlled by the suppressor of zest 12 (SUZ12) were upregulated in ER-/PR+ tumours. Overall, our results confirm that ER-/PR+ breast cancers are an extremely rare but 'real' tumour subtype which requires careful diagnosis and has distinct features warranting different responsiveness to therapies and different clinical outcomes. Studies on larger cohorts are needed to further characterise these tumours. The likely involvement of SUZ12 in their biology is an interesting finding which may - in a long run - give rise to the development of new therapeutic alternatives. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.