Abstract
BackgroundVimentin is one of the cytoplasmic intermediate filament proteins which are the major component of the cytoskeleton. In our study we checked the usefulness of vimentin expression in identifying cases of breast cancer with poorer prognosis, by adding vimentin to the immunopanel consisting of basal type cytokeratins, estrogen, progesterone, and HER2 receptors.Methods179 tissue specimens of invasive operable ductal breast cancer were assessed by the use of immunohistochemistry. The median follow-up period for censored cases was 90 months.Results38 cases (21.2%) were identified as being vimentin-positive. Vimentin-positive tumours affected younger women (p = 0.024), usually lacked estrogen and progesterone receptor (p < 0.001), more often expressed basal cytokeratins (<0.001), and were high-grade cancers (p < 0.001). Survival analysis showed that vimentin did not help to delineate basal type phenotype in a triple negative (ER, PgR, HER2-negative) group. For patients with 'vimentin or CK5/6, 14, 17-positive' tumours, 5-year estimated survival rate was 78.6%, whereas for patients with 'vimentin, or CK5/6, 14, 17-negative' tumours it was 58.3% (log-rank p = 0.227).ConclusionWe were not able to better delineate an immunohistochemical definition of basal type of breast cancer by adding vimentin to the immunopanel consisted of ER, PgR, HER2, CK5/6, 14 and 17 markers, when overall survival was a primary end-point.
Highlights
Vimentin is one of the cytoplasmic intermediate filament proteins which are the major component of the cytoskeleton
The aim of our study was to assess if the immunopanel consisted of triple negative phenotype (ER, progesterone receptor (PgR), HER2) with the addition of basal cytokeratins (CK5/6, 14, 17) or vimentin could better delineate a basal type tumour group and better predict patient survival when compared to only pure estrogen receptor (ER), PgR, HER2 negative phenotype
Vimentin expression was observed in 38 cases (21.2%) (Table 1, Fig. 1), whereas 141 (78.8%) (Table 1) tumours were found to be vimentin-negative
Summary
Vimentin is one of the cytoplasmic intermediate filament proteins which are the major component of the cytoskeleton. Vimentin is a 57 kDa intermediate filament (IF) protein, which forms a part of the cytoskeleton. Six major classes of IFs are believed to be relatively specific for certain cell types, for example keratin in epithelial cells, neurofilaments in neurons, glial fibrillary acid protein in glial cells, desmin in muscule cells and vimentin in mesenchymal cells. They are variably expressed in different cell types and in corresponding tumours.
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