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. 2020 Apr 5;20(2):436-443.
doi: 10.5114/aoms.2020.93695. eCollection 2024.

Immunohistochemical evaluation of osteopontin expression in triple-negative breast cancer

Magdalena Niedolistek  1 , Marta M Fudalej  1 , Aleksandra Sobiborowicz  1 , Anna Liszcz  1 , Michał P Budzik  2 , Maciej Sobieraj  1 , Janusz Patera  3 , Aleksandra Czerw  4 , Urszula Religioni  5 , Maria Sobol  6 , Andrzej Deptała  2 , Anna M Badowska-Kozakiewicz  2
Affiliations

Immunohistochemical evaluation of osteopontin expression in triple-negative breast cancer

Magdalena Niedolistek et al. Arch Med Sci. .

Abstract

Introduction: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is associated with lack of expression of estrogen and progesterone receptors and HER2 and is the subgroup of breast cancers with the worst prognosis. Osteopontin is a phosphorylated glycoprotein whose overexpression may occur in pathological states such as cancers. The main purpose of our study was to evaluate the immunohistochemical expression of osteopontin in connection with the analysis of recognized clinical and pathological prognostic factors in primary sites of TNBC with and without lymph node metastases.

Material and methods: The immunohistochemical evaluation of osteopontin expression in 35 women with TNBC, chosen from a group of 726 patients, was performed. The material came from the excisional biopsies of primary breast cancers and total mastectomies.

Results: All patients showed expression of osteopontin, in most cases the expression of osteopontin rated at [+] (57.1%) and [++] (42.9%). Our study analyzed the relationship between the expression of osteopontin and traditional prognostic markers, such as the tumor grade, size, and lymph node involvement. We found a strong relationship only between the expression of osteopontin and the presence of lymph node metastases (p ≤ 0.0001). 93% of patients for whom the expression of osteopontin was determined at [++] had metastasis to lymph nodes and, for comparison, only 15% of women for whom the expression of osteopontin was rated at [+] showed the presence of metastases in the lymphatic nodes.

Conclusions: There is a correlation between osteopontin expression and the presence of lymph node metastases in TNBC, suggesting that osteopontin plays an important role in the invasiveness of TNBC.

Keywords: immunohistochemistry; osteopontin; triple-negative breast cancer.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Histopathological image of triple-negative breast cancer (grade 3, H&E, original magnification, 200×)
Figure 2
Figure 2
Immunohistochemical analysis of osteopontin expression in triple-negative breast cancer (positive staining images for OPN; original magnification, 400×)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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