Determination of β-catenin Expression in Breast Cancer and Its Relationship with Clinicopathologic Parameters

Abstract

Background: Abnormal activation of the β-catenin signaling pathway is involved in various malignancies, including breast carcinoma.Aberrant expression of β-catenin has been associated with more aggressive behaviors of breast cancer in some previous studies.. In the present study, we intend to evaluate the β-catenin expression in breast cancer specimens and study its relationship with clinicopathological parameters. Materials and method: In this crosssectional study,88 samples diagnosed as invasive ductal breast carcinoma from 2007 to 2017 were evaluated. The slides and paraffin blocks were retrieved from the archive of pathology department. Patients’ clinical characteristics and other information were also extracted from medical documents. Sections from related paraffin blocks through the tissue microarray method were provided, and immunohistochemistry staining for β-catenin was done. Then different patterns of β-catenin expression and the relationship between different patterns and clinicopathological parameters were investigated. Results: Of the 88 breast cancer samples, 94% were female, and 6% were male. In 70% of the samples, normal membrane expression of β-catenin was observed. Whereas in 30% of them, aberrant expression of β-catenin was observed. A close significant relationship was observed between aberrant β-catenin expression and age over 50 years (p-value: 0.093) and negative HER2 (p-value: 0.07). Conclusion: In the present study, a correlation was observed between aberrant β-catenin expression and age over 50 years in patients and HER2 negativity, although this association was not statistically significant