UMMS Affiliation
Program in Molecular Medicine
Publication Date
2018-03-09
Document Type
Article
Disciplines
Cancer Biology | Genetic Phenomena | Genetics and Genomics | Neoplasms | Race and Ethnicity
Abstract
BACKGROUND: MYC overexpression is associated with poor prognosis in breast tumors (BCa). The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of MYC amplification and associated markers in BCa tumors from African American (AA) women and determine the associations between MYC amplification and clinico-pathological characteristics.
METHODS: We analyzed 70 cases of well characterized archival breast ductal carcinoma specimens from AA women for MYC oncogene amplification. Utilizing immune histochemical analysis estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and (HER2/neu), were assessed. Cases were Luminal A (ER or PR+, Ki-67 < 14%), Luminal B (ER or PR+, Ki-67 = > 14% or ER or PR+ HER2+), HER2 (ER-, PR-, HER2+), and Triple Negative (ER-, PR-, HER2-) with basal-like phenotype. The relationship between MYC amplification and prognostic clinico-pathological characteristics was determined using chi square and logistic regression modeling.
RESULTS: Sixty-five (97%) of the tumors showed MYC gene amplification (MYC: CEP8 > 1). Statistically significant associations were found between MYC amplification and HER2-amplified BCa, and Luminal B subtypes of BCa (p < 0.0001), stage (p < 0.001), metastasis (p < 0.001), and positive lymph node status (p = 0.039). MYC amplification was associated with HER2 status (p = 0.01) and tumor size (p = 0.01). High MYC amplification was seen in grade III carcinomas (MYC: CEP8 = 2.42), pre-menopausal women (MYC: CEP8 = 2.49), PR-negative status (MYC: CEP8 = 2.42), and ER-positive status (MYC: CEP8 = 2.4).
CONCLUSIONS: HER2 positive BCas in AA women are likely to exhibit MYC amplification. High amplification ratios suggest that MYC drives HER2 amplification, especially in HER2 positive, Luminal B, and subtypes of BCa.
Keywords
Breast cancer subtypes, FISH, Gene amplification, MYC
Rights and Permissions
© The Author(s). 2018. Open Access: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
DOI of Published Version
10.1186/s12885-018-4171-6
Source
BMC Cancer. 2018 Mar 9;18(1):274. doi: 10.1186/s12885-018-4171-6. Link to article on publisher's site
Journal/Book/Conference Title
BMC cancer
Related Resources
PubMed ID
29523126
Repository Citation
Naab, Tammey J.; Gautam, Anita; Ricks-Santi, Luisel; Esnakula, Ashwini K.; Kanaan, Yasmine M.; DeWitty, Robert L.; Asgedom, Girmay; Makambi, Khepher H.; Abawi, Massih; and Blancato, Jan K., "MYC amplification in subtypes of breast cancers in African American women" (2018). Open Access Articles. 3405.
https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/oapubs/3405
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Included in
Cancer Biology Commons, Genetic Phenomena Commons, Genetics and Genomics Commons, Neoplasms Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons