Qian Xiao

Inflammatory Breast Cancer in Egypt

Objective:
Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is one of the most aggressive types of breast cancer and has an extremely poor prognosis. A rare disease in US, IBC has a much higher incidence in Egypt. This study aims to better understand the etiology of IBC by assessing the molecular characteristics of IBC.

Methods:
The samples of the current study consist of two sets of paraffin blocks of breast cancer biopsy tissues, both taken from IBC and non-IBC breast cancer patients recruited at the National Cancer Institute in Cairo and the Tanta Cancer Center. The first set contains 50 IBC cases and 16 non-IBC cases, recruited between 2005 and 2006. The second set contains 15 IBC cases and 15 non-IBC cases, recruited between 2009 and 2010. Tissue Microarrays (TMA) are constructed using the cancer tissue. Molecular subtypes of breast cancer are determined by immunocytochemistry staining of ER, PR, HER2, Cytokeratin5/6, Ki67 and EGFR. Aldehyde dehydrogenase is used to determine the stem cell properties. The distribution of 5 molecular subtypes of breast cancer is determined in both IBC and non-IBC cases and the difference in distribution is compared. The association between IBC and molecular nature of cancer, demographic characteristics and reproductive history of the patient is evaluated by a logistic multivariate regression model.

Results:
Four TMAs have been constructed. The first round of analysis is expected to start soon.

Publication:

Soliman AS, Kleer CG, et al. Inflammatory breast cancer in north Africa: comparison of clinical and molecular epidemiologic characteristics of patients from Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco. Breast Dis. 2011;33(4):159-169.