Immunohistochemical study of proline, glutamic acid and leucine-rich protein 1 (PELP1) in correlation with guanine adenine thymine adenine family member 3 (GATA-3) receptors expression in breast carcinomas

Abstract

Abstract Background Breast cancer is the most common cancer affecting Egyptian women. Guanine adenine thymine adenine family member 3 (GATA-3) and Proline, glutamic acid and leucine-rich protein 1 (PELP1) are both expressed in breast carcinomas. Aim To evaluate GATA-3 and PELP1 proteins expression in breast carcinoma, assess association of both immunohistochemical markers with variable prognostic factors, correlate between GATA-3 and PELP1 expression and assess the diagnostic utility of both markers in breast carcinomas. Subjects and methods The current study was a cross-sectional descriptive study, performed in the Pathology laboratory of Suez Canal University Hospital on 86 samples of formalin fixed paraffin embedded blocks of breast carcinoma during the period from January 2016 to May 2019. Results GATA-3 and PELP1 showed positive nuclear expression in breast carcinoma cases (74.4% and 82.6%, respectively). PELP1 expression showed statistically significant association with older age cases. GATA-3 expression showed statistically significant association with positive ER, PR and HER-2 expression and molecular subtypes. A statistically significant correlation was found between GATA-3 and PELP1 expression in breast carcinomas (n=86, P value <0.05). PELP1 showed the highest sensitivity in stage III breast cancer samples (84.9%) compared to GATA-3 (75.8%), ER (66.7%), PR (54.6%) and HER2 (39.4%). PELP1 is more sensitive (80%) than GATA-3 (60%) in grade III breast carcinomas. GATA-3 is more sensitive (89.7%) than PELP1 (86.2%) in luminal breast cancer subtype. the combined parallel use of GATA-3 and PELP1 raised their sensitivity to 92% in Grade III and 98.6% in luminal breast cancers. Conclusions GATA-3 and PELP1 may be a promising diagnostic markers of breast carcinoma. Further studies are needed to fully evaluate the prognostic significance of GATA-3 and PELP1 expression in invasive breast carcinomas.