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. 2020 Dec;18(4):753-762.
doi: 10.1111/vco.12603. Epub 2020 May 22.

Prognostic significance of immunohistochemical markers and histological classification in malignant canine mammary tumours

Nieves Pastor  1 , Luis Javier Ezquerra  2 , Massimo Santella  1 , Nuria C Caballé  3 , Raquel Tarazona  4 , María Esther Durán  5
Affiliations

Prognostic significance of immunohistochemical markers and histological classification in malignant canine mammary tumours

Nieves Pastor et al. Vet Comp Oncol. 2020 Dec.

Abstract

Canine mammary carcinoma represents a model for the study of human breast cancer, although the prognostic value of various clinical, histological and immunohistochemical parameters has shown contradictory results. A prospective study, through a 4-year follow-up, was performed in 77 patients with mammary carcinoma to analyse the association between histological diagnosis, grade of malignancy, peritumoral and vascular invasion. We have also performed immunohistochemistry for the expression of oestrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) that define human biomarkers of disease progression and treatment response. An association between histological diagnosis and clinical stage was observed with a high proportion of complex carcinoma classified as stage I. There was a higher proportion of ER+ /PR+ /HER2- tumours in stage I. In contrast, triple-negative tumours (ER- /PR- /HER2- ) were found mainly in advanced clinical stages and were associated with vascular and peritumoral invasion. The tumours included in group VII (carcinosarcoma/adenosquamous carcinoma/other special types of carcinoma) had a higher expression of COX-2. The univariate analysis showed that those patients with complex carcinoma had the lowest incidence of metastases and the highest probability of survival. In contrast, a high proportion of patients with anaplastic/inflammatory carcinoma developed metastases and showed the lowest probability of survival. In addition, the estimated survival time was shorter for those patients with triple-negative tumours and those with high COX-2 expression. However, in the multivariate analysis, only the peritumoral invasion maintained its prognostic significance. In conclusion, in our study anaplastic/inflammatory carcinomas had the worst prognosis with a high proportion of triple-negative tumours in this category.

Keywords: canine mammary carcinoma; histological classification; immunohistochemistry; pathology; prognosis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Distribution of patients by immunohistochemical expression of ER, PR and HER2. ER, oestrogen receptor; PR, progesterone receptor; HER2, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Survival time (months) vs cumulative survival probability for the different histological diagnosis groups. Group I: complex carcinoma; II: simple carcinoma; III: anaplastic carcinoma/inflammatory carcinoma; IV: mixed carcinoma; V: invasive micropapillary carcinoma/comedocarcinoma/solid carcinoma; VI: ductal carcinoma/intraductal papillary carcinoma and VII: carcinosarcoma/adenosquamous carcinoma/other special types of carcinoma (log‐rank; P = .00)
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Survival time (months) vs cumulative survival probability for groups classified according to ER, PR and HER2 immunohistochemical expression (log‐rank; P = .06). ER, oestrogen receptor; PR, progesterone receptor; HER2, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Survival time (months) vs cumulative survival probability for the groups according to COX‐2 expression (log‐rank; P = .02). COX‐2, cyclooxygenase‐2
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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