Abstract
The overexpression of Metallothionein-1 (MT-1) may play an important role in breast cancer; however, few studies have compared MT-1 expression between breast cancer and fibroadenoma. A cross-sectional controlled study was performed in 66 premenopausal women, aged 20–49 years, who had been histologically diagnosed with breast fibroadenoma or breast cancer. The patients were divided into two groups: group A, control (fibroadenoma, n = 36) and group B, study (breast cancer, n = 30). Immunohistochemistry was performed on tissue samples of fibroadenoma and breast cancer patients to evaluate the expression of metallothionein using an anti-MT-1 polyclonal antibody (rabbit polyclonal anti-metallothionein-Catalog Number biorbyt-orb11042) at a dilution of 1:100. The data were analyzed using NOVA (p < 0.05). Microscopic analysis showed a higher concentration of anti-MT-1-stained nuclei in breast cancer tissues than in fibroadenoma tissues. The mean proportion of cells with anti-MT-1-stained nuclei was 26.93% and 9.10%, respectively, in the study and control groups (p < 0.001). Histological grade 3 tumors showed a significantly higher MT-1 expression than hitological grade 1 (p < 0.05), while breast tumors negative for estrogen-, progesterone- and HER2- receptors had a significantly higher MT-1 expression than positive breast tumors positive for these parameters (p < 0.05). MT-1 protein in women of reproductive age was significantly higher in breast cancer than in fibroadenoma in this study. Furthermore, there was higher MT-1 immunoreactivity in more aggressive tumors.
Highlights
Breast cancer is the most common malignancy that affects women in western countries and is the leading cause of cancer death among women worldwide[1,2]
Breast cancer cells had a higher concentration of nuclei stained with anti-MT-1 than fibroadenomas (Fig. 1)
MT-1 expression was statistically significant in breast cancers negative for HER2, estrogen- and progesterone-receptors in comparison to tumors that were positive for these hormone receptors (p < 0.05), (Table 3)
Summary
Breast cancer is the most common malignancy that affects women in western countries and is the leading cause of cancer death among women worldwide[1,2]. It has been suggested that more adequate therapeutic and prognostic strategies in breast cancer can be developed using protein biomarkers, such as metallothionein. This protein has the advantage of interfering with cell apoptosis and proliferation and undergoing alterations well before the occurrence of clinical tumor alterations[5] and may better guide treatment and prognostic strategies[6,7]. Metallothionein (MT) is a protein that has been widely studiedas a prognostic marker for breast cancer, since it promotes apoptosis, proliferation and differentiation of malignant tumor cells, making them more resistant to treatment[8,9,10]. The conception of the current study was motivated by the paucity of studies that have compared MT-1 expression between fibroadenoma and breast cancer
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