Expression of the Immunohistochemical Markers CK5, CD117, and EGFR in Molecular Subtypes of Breast Cancer Correlated with Prognosis

Carla E Schulmeyer; Peter A Fasching; Lothar Häberle; Julia Meyer; Michael Schneider; David Wachter; Matthias Ruebner; Patrik Pöschke; Matthias W Beckmann; Arndt Hartmann; Ramona Erber; Paul Gass

doi:10.3390/diagnostics13030372

Expression of the Immunohistochemical Markers CK5, CD117, and EGFR in Molecular Subtypes of Breast Cancer Correlated with Prognosis

Diagnostics (Basel). 2023 Jan 19;13(3):372. doi: 10.3390/diagnostics13030372.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Erlangen University Hospital, Comprehensive Cancer Center Erlangen-EMN, Friedrich Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, 91054 Erlangen, Germany.
² Würzburg University Hospital, Institut für Pathologie, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, 97070 Würzburg, Germany.
³ Institute of Pathology, Erlangen University Hospital, Comprehensive Cancer Center Erlangen-EMN, Friedrich Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, 91054 Erlangen, Germany.
⁴ Institute of Pathology, Weiden Hospital, Weiden in der Oberpfalz, 92637 Weiden in der Oberpfalz, Germany.

Abstract

Molecular-based subclassifications of breast cancer are important for identifying treatment options and stratifying the prognosis in breast cancer. This study aimed to assess the prognosis relative to disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) in patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and other subtypes, using a biomarker panel including cytokeratin 5 (CK5), cluster of differentiation 117 (CD117), and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). This cohort-case study included histologically confirmed breast carcinomas as cohort arm. From a total of 894 patients, 572 patients with early breast cancer, sufficient clinical data, and archived tumor tissue were included. Using the immunohistochemical markers CK5, CD117, and EGFR, two subgroups were formed: one with all three biomarkers negative (TBN) and one with at least one of those three biomarkers positive (non-TBN). There were significant differences between the two biomarker subgroups (TBN versus non-TBN) in TNBC for DFS (p = 0.04) and OS (p = 0.02), with higher survival rates (DFS and OS) in the non-TBN subgroup. In this study, we found the non-TBN subgroup of TNBC lesions with at least one positive biomarker of CK5, CD117, and/or EGFR, to be associated with longer DFS and OS.

Keywords: CD117; CK5; EGFR; early breast cancer; prognosis; therapy; triple-negative breast cancer.

Grants and funding

We acknowledge financial support by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg within the funding programme “Open Access Publication Funding.”