scholarly journals Localisation and hypersecretion of Nerve Growth Factor in breast Phyllodes tumours: evidence from a preliminary study

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashutosh Kumar ◽  
Khursheed Raza ◽  
Tapas C. Nag ◽  
Anurag Srivastava ◽  
Ritu Sehgal

AbstractBackgroundThe pathophysiology of the breast phyllodes tumours is uncertain. Currently, wide surgical removal is the only available treatment option. The histopathological diagnosis of phyllodes tumours is often confused with that of fibroadenomas due to a striking histological resemblance; hence a distinctive biomarker for this tumour type is warranted.Material & MethodsFresh human breast tissue was obtained from surgically excised breast phyllodes and fibroadenoma tumours (test, 2 cases each), breast cancer (positive control, 2 cases) and normal breast tissue (negative control, 1 case). Immunohistochemistry was performed for the detection of nerve growth factor (NGF) on frozen sections of the test and control tissues fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde, using the indirect streptavidin-biotin-peroxidase complex method. Sandwich ELISA on tissue homogenates of the same test and control cases was also performed to validate the immunohistochemical findings.ResultsA marked difference in NGF expression was detected in phyllodes tumours compared to fibroadenomas. The maximum NGF expression was observed in phyllodes tissue followed by cancer tissue, and the least expression in fibroadenomas (3-5 times less than in phyllodes; comparable with normal breast tissue).ConclusionNGF is known for its growth inducing potential in breast cancer, but its secretion by a benign breast tumour is not known in literature. This study reports abundant NGF secretion by breast phyllodes, raising the possibility of its potential role in tumour pathogenesis and progression that can be exploited therapeutically in future. We also propose that NGF may be used as a distinct biomarker of phyllodes tumours, for differentiating them from fibroadenomas during histopathology.

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shoghag Panjarian ◽  
Jozef Madzo ◽  
Kelsey Keith ◽  
Carolyn M. Slater ◽  
Carmen Sapienza ◽  
...  

Abstract Background DNA methylation alterations have similar patterns in normal aging tissue and in cancer. In this study, we investigated breast tissue-specific age-related DNA methylation alterations and used those methylation sites to identify individuals with outlier phenotypes. Outlier phenotype is identified by unsupervised anomaly detection algorithms and is defined by individuals who have normal tissue age-dependent DNA methylation levels that vary dramatically from the population mean. Methods We generated whole-genome DNA methylation profiles (GSE160233) on purified epithelial cells and used publicly available Infinium HumanMethylation 450K array datasets (TCGA, GSE88883, GSE69914, GSE101961, and GSE74214) for discovery and validation. Results We found that hypermethylation in normal breast tissue is the best predictor of hypermethylation in cancer. Using unsupervised anomaly detection approaches, we found that about 10% of the individuals (39/427) were outliers for DNA methylation from 6 DNA methylation datasets. We also found that there were significantly more outlier samples in normal-adjacent to cancer (24/139, 17.3%) than in normal samples (15/228, 5.2%). Additionally, we found significant differences between the predicted ages based on DNA methylation and the chronological ages among outliers and not-outliers. Additionally, we found that accelerated outliers (older predicted age) were more frequent in normal-adjacent to cancer (14/17, 82%) compared to normal samples from individuals without cancer (3/17, 18%). Furthermore, in matched samples, we found that the epigenome of the outliers in the pre-malignant tissue was as severely altered as in cancer. Conclusions A subset of patients with breast cancer has severely altered epigenomes which are characterized by accelerated aging in their normal-appearing tissue. In the future, these DNA methylation sites should be studied further such as in cell-free DNA to determine their potential use as biomarkers for early detection of malignant transformation and preventive intervention in breast cancer.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toshiaki Akahane ◽  
Naoki Kanomata ◽  
Oi Harada ◽  
Tetsumasa Yamashita ◽  
Junichi Kurebayashi ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Next-generation sequencing (NGS) has shown that recurrent/metastatic breast cancer lesions may have additional genetic changes compared with the primary tumor. These additional changes may be related to tumor progression and/or drug resistance. However, breast cancer-targeted NGS is not still widely used in clinical practice to compare the genomic profiles of primary breast cancer and recurrent/metastatic lesions.Methods: Triplet samples of genomic DNA were extracted from each patient’s normal breast tissue, primary breast cancer, and recurrent/metastatic lesion(s). A DNA library was constructed using the QIAseq Human Breast Cancer Panel (93 genes, Qiagen) and then sequenced using MiSeq (Illumina). The Qiagen web portal was utilized for data analysis.Results: Successful results for three or four samples (normal breast tissue, primary tumor, and at least one metastatic/recurrent lesion) were obtained for 11 of 35 breast cancer patients with recurrence/metastases (36 samples). We detected shared somatic mutations in all but one patient, who had a germline mutation in TP53. Additional mutations that were detected in recurrent/metastatic lesions compared with primary tumor were in genes including TP53 (three patients) and one case each of ATR, BLM, CBFB, EP300, ERBB2, MUC16, PBRM1, and PIK3CA. Actionable mutations and/or copy number variations (CNVs) were detected in 73% (8/11) of recurrent/metastatic breast cancer lesions.Conclusions: The QIAseq Human Breast Cancer Panel assay showed that recurrent/metastatic breast cancers sometimes acquired additional mutations and CNV. Such additional genomic changes could provide therapeutic target.


Cancers ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 3088 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaoutar Ennour-Idrissi ◽  
Dzevka Dragic ◽  
Elissar Issa ◽  
Annick Michaud ◽  
Sue-Ling Chang ◽  
...  

Differential DNA methylation is a potential marker of breast cancer risk. Few studies have investigated DNA methylation changes in normal breast tissue and were largely confounded by cancer field effects. To detect methylation changes in normal breast epithelium that are causally associated with breast cancer occurrence, we used a nested case–control study design based on a prospective cohort of patients diagnosed with a primary invasive hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. Twenty patients diagnosed with a contralateral breast cancer (CBC) were matched (1:1) with 20 patients who did not develop a CBC on relevant risk factors. Differentially methylated Cytosine-phosphate-Guanines (CpGs) and regions in normal breast epithelium were identified using an epigenome-wide DNA methylation assay and robust linear regressions. Analyses were replicated in two independent sets of normal breast tissue and blood. We identified 7315 CpGs (FDR < 0.05), 52 passing strict Bonferroni correction (p < 1.22 × 10−7) and 43 mapping to known genes involved in metabolic diseases with significant enrichment (p < 0.01) of pathways involving fatty acids metabolic processes. Four differentially methylated genes were detected in both site-specific and regions analyses (LHX2, TFAP2B, JAKMIP1, SEPT9), and three genes overlapped all three datasets (POM121L2, KCNQ1, CLEC4C). Once validated, the seven differentially methylated genes distinguishing women who developed and who did not develop a sporadic breast cancer could be used to enhance breast cancer risk-stratification, and allow implementation of targeted screening and preventive strategies that would ultimately improve breast cancer prognosis.


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