Abstract 184P
Background
Breast cancer (BC) is a leading cause of mortality worldwide in females. Aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 (ALDH1) is an enzyme which plays a role in the detoxification of aldehydes. Sex-determining region Y-box 9 (SOX9) is a transcription factor that plays an important role in a number of biological and pathological processes. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the prognostic significance of ALDH-1 and SOX9 expression in early BC.
Methods
The expression of ALDH1 and SOX-9 was evaluated through immunohistochemistry in 50 eligible patients with early BC included in the current prospective cohort study.
Results
Positive expression of ALDH1 and SOX-9 were detected in 29(58%) and 34(68%) patients respectively. The positive expression of both markers was significantly associated with increasing the stage, lymph node (LN) metastasis, high Ki67 labeling index, and molecular subtypes (P<0.001) (luminal B, Her2 amplified and triple negative), and with the biological markers. An association was also observed with overexpression of the biological markers such as estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (Her-2 neu), and large tumor size(P=0.039, P=0.022, P=0.024 and P= 0.003 for ALDH1 expression and (P=0.012, P=0.007, P=0.004, and P=0.002 for SOX-9 expression, respectively). There is a significant positive association between the expression of ALDH1 and SOX-9, (Correlation Coefficient, r=0.806; P<0.001). Local recurrence was associated with positive expression of ALDH1 only (P= 0.045), and disease progression was significantly associated with positive expression of both ALDH1 and SOX-9 (P=0.038 P=0.023, respectively). There was significant association of positive expression of SOX-9 with reduced 3-year DFS (P=0.039, respectively) and no OS significance for ALDH-1 and SOX9 expressions (P=0.576, P=0.181, respectively).
Conclusions
Positive expression of ALDH-1 and SOX9 were associated with aggressive histopathological features and poor outcome in early breast cancer and can be considered potential prognostic markers in this group of patients.
Clinical trial identification
Editorial acknowledgement
Legal entity responsible for the study
Zagazig University, Mansoura University.
Funding
Has not received any funding.
Disclosure
All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.