TY - JOUR
T1 - Mammographic density and epithelial histopathologic markers
AU - Verheus, Martijn
AU - Maskarinec, Gertraud
AU - Erber, Eva
AU - Steude, Jana S.
AU - Killeen, Jeffrey
AU - Hernandez, Brenda Y.
AU - Cline, J. Mark
N1 - Funding Information:
The breast pathology study and the case-control study were funded by grants from the National Cancer Institute (R21 CA1080250 and R01 CA 85265). The Multiethnic Cohort Study has been supported by USPHS (National Cancer Institute) Grant R37 CA 54281 (PI: Dr. L.N. Kolonel). We are grateful to the study participants and to the staff of the Hawaii Tumor Registry for their support. We thank Hugh Luk for the preparation of the TMAs, Hermina Borgerink and Suzanne Cashin for the staining of the TMAs, and Joseph Finley for the assessment of stains.
PY - 2009/6/13
Y1 - 2009/6/13
N2 - Background: We explored the association of mammographic density, a breast cancer risk factor, with hormonal and proliferation markers in benign tissue from tumor blocks of pre-and postmenopausal breast cancer cases. Methods: Breast cancer cases were recruited from a case-control study on breast density. Mammographic density was assessed on digitized prediagnostic mammograms using a computer-assisted method. For 279 participants of the original study, we obtained tumor blocks and prepared tissue microarrays (TMA), but benign tissue cores were only available for 159 women. The TMAs were immunostained for estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) and beta (ERβ), progesterone receptor (PR), HER2/neu, Ki-67, and Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen (PCNA). We applied general linear models to compute breast density according to marker expression. Results: A substantial proportion of the samples were in the low or no staining categories. None of the results was statistically significant, but women with PR and ERβ staining had 3.4% and 2.4% higher percent density. The respective values for Caucasians were 5.7% and 11.6% but less in Japanese women (3.5% and -1.1%). Percent density was 3.4% higher in women with any Ki-67 staining and 2.2% in those with positive PCNA staining. Conclusion: This study detected little evidence for an association between mammographic density and expression of steroid receptors and proliferation markers in breast tissue, but it illustrated the problems of locating tumor blocks and benign breast tissue samples for epidemiologic research. Given the suggestive findings, future studies examining estrogen effects in tissue, cell proliferation, and density in the breast may be informative.
AB - Background: We explored the association of mammographic density, a breast cancer risk factor, with hormonal and proliferation markers in benign tissue from tumor blocks of pre-and postmenopausal breast cancer cases. Methods: Breast cancer cases were recruited from a case-control study on breast density. Mammographic density was assessed on digitized prediagnostic mammograms using a computer-assisted method. For 279 participants of the original study, we obtained tumor blocks and prepared tissue microarrays (TMA), but benign tissue cores were only available for 159 women. The TMAs were immunostained for estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) and beta (ERβ), progesterone receptor (PR), HER2/neu, Ki-67, and Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen (PCNA). We applied general linear models to compute breast density according to marker expression. Results: A substantial proportion of the samples were in the low or no staining categories. None of the results was statistically significant, but women with PR and ERβ staining had 3.4% and 2.4% higher percent density. The respective values for Caucasians were 5.7% and 11.6% but less in Japanese women (3.5% and -1.1%). Percent density was 3.4% higher in women with any Ki-67 staining and 2.2% in those with positive PCNA staining. Conclusion: This study detected little evidence for an association between mammographic density and expression of steroid receptors and proliferation markers in breast tissue, but it illustrated the problems of locating tumor blocks and benign breast tissue samples for epidemiologic research. Given the suggestive findings, future studies examining estrogen effects in tissue, cell proliferation, and density in the breast may be informative.
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U2 - 10.1186/1471-2407-9-182
DO - 10.1186/1471-2407-9-182
M3 - Article
C2 - 19523235
AN - SCOPUS:67651015653
SN - 1471-2407
VL - 9
JO - BMC cancer
JF - BMC cancer
M1 - 182
ER -