Biologic Subtypes of Breast Cancer in Sokoto Nigeria

Most recently published works from across Nigeria and Africa point to a rising prevalence of breast cancer in these hitherto low incidence areas. The literature is also replete with studies on molecular markers of breast cancer amongst pre and post- menopausal women especially in the more advanced countries. Even though our centre has also witnessed a rising trend in the incidence of breast cancer, not much work has been done to elucidate the molecular biology of the disease. This study was therefore undertaken to determine the predominant receptor status of breast cancer among patients in Sokoto, North-western Nigeria. A one year retrospective study in which the case note of patients with histologically confirmed diagnosis of breast cancer between January and September, 2015 were reviewed. Parameters studied included demographic characteristics and receptor status of biopsy specimens. Atotal of forty six patients were seen in this study and all were females. The age range was 25-75 years. The mean age was 44.65 years. The median age was 45.00 years while modal age was 35.00 years. Seventy two percent (33) of the women with breast cancer were premenopausal while 28.26% (13) were post-menopausal. Immunohistochemical analysis shows that 47.8% (22) of cancers were ER positive, 41.3% (19) PR positive, 39.1% (18) ER/PR positive, and 43.5% (20) were HER 2/neu positive. Immunohistochemical classification based on ER, PR and HER2 gene expression showed that 24%(11) were Luminal A(ER+, PR+,HER2-), 22%(10) Luminal B(ER+,PR+,HER2+), 26%(12) HER2 type(ER-,PR-,HER2+) while 28%(13) were Basal-like(Triple negative) tumours. There was no statistically significant relationship between receptor status and age of patients. It was concluded that majority of the tumours in this study exhibited triple negative (basal-like) receptor characteristics in a predominantly premenopausal patient population.