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. 2017 May;470(5):505-515.
doi: 10.1007/s00428-017-2103-5. Epub 2017 Mar 18.

The relationship between breast cancer molecular subtypes and mast cell populations in tumor microenvironment

Anna Glajcar  1 , Joanna Szpor  1 , Agnieszka Pacek  1 , Katarzyna Ewa Tyrak  2 , Florence Chan  1 , Joanna Streb  3 , Diana Hodorowicz-Zaniewska  4 , Krzysztof Okoń  5
Affiliations

The relationship between breast cancer molecular subtypes and mast cell populations in tumor microenvironment

Anna Glajcar et al. Virchows Arch. 2017 May.

Abstract

Mast cells (MCs) are a part of the innate immune system. The MC functions toward cancer are partially based on the release of chymase and tryptase. However, the MC effect on breast cancer is controversial. The aim of our study was to investigate the presence of MCs in breast cancer tumors of different molecular subtypes and their relationships with other pathological prognostic factors. Tryptase- and chymase-positive mast cell densities were evaluated by immunohistochemistry in 108 primary invasive breast cancer tissue samples. Positive cells were counted within the tumor bed and at the invasive margin. For all analyzed MC subpopulations, we observed statistically significant differences between individual molecular subtypes of breast cancer. The significantly higher numbers of intratumoral chymase- and tryptase-positive mast cells were observed in luminal A and luminal B tumors compared to triple-negative and HER2+ non-luminal lesions. A denser MC infiltration was associated with lower tumor grade, higher ER and PR expression, lower proliferation rate as well as the lack of HER2 overexpression. The results obtained in our study indicate a possible association of chymase- and tryptase-positive MCs with more favorable cancer immunophenotype and with beneficial prognostic indicators in breast cancer.

Keywords: Breast cancer; Mast cells; Molecular classification.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Funding

This study was supported by Jagiellonian University Medical College (grant no. K/DSC/003589).

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Mast cells in invasive breast cancer. Low (a) and high (b) chymase-positive mast cells infiltration, low (c) and high (d) tryptase-positive mast cells infiltration. Immunohistochemistry for tryptase and chymase, magnification ×100
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Density of investigated MC subpopulations in breast cancer specimens representing different molecular subtypes: Lum A luminal A, Lum B luminal B/HER2−, Lum B/HER2 luminal B/HER2+, HER2 HER2+ non-luminal, TNBC triple-negative subtype. Central point is the arithmetic mean, box is the arithmetic mean ± standard error, and whisker is the arithmetic mean ± standard deviation. ANOVA Kruskal–Wallis test, p values are shown in Table 3
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Density of investigated MC subpopulations in breast cancer specimens representing different Nottingham Histologic Grade. Central point is the arithmetic mean, box is the arithmetic mean ± standard error, and whisker is the arithmetic mean ± standard deviation. ANOVA Kruskal–Wallis test, p values are shown in Table 4
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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