The Prognostic Significance of CD10 Expression in Invasive Breast Carcinoma in Tunisian Patients.

Background: Breast cancer is the first female cancer worldwide. Its prognosis depends mainly on pathological stage and histological grade. These classical prognostic factors are essential but may be insufficient to predict the outcome of the disease. Research focuses on identifying new prognostic factors such as CD10, which is a cell surface metalloproteinase.

Objective: This study aims to evaluate CD10 expression on stromal and tumor cells in invasive breast carcinomas and its correlations with other clinicopathological factors and survival.

Methods: A series of 100 cases of breast carcinoma of no special type diagnosed from 2009 to 2011, was investigated in this study. CD10 expression was detected by immunohistochemistry. Stromal CD10 expression (=10% stromal positivity was considered positive) and tumor cells expression (=1% stained carcinomatous cells) were noted. Statistical correlations were analyzed with different known prognostic parameters; survival analysis were performed using SPSS 22.0.

Results: Stromal CD10 expression was seen in 60% of the cases. It showed positive correlation with high tumor grade (p=0,012) and distant metastasis (p=0,02). CD10 expression on tumor cells was observed in 10% of the cases. It was associated with high tumor grade (p=0,009), hormone receptor negativity (estrogen receptor: p<0,0001), progesterone receptor: p=0,005), triplenegative phenotype (p=0,001), and Ki67 overexpression (p=0,046). Stromal CD10 expression was significantly associated to a shorter overall survival (p=0,029) and disease-free survival (p=0,05) in univariate analysis.

Conclusion: Given these results, it can be concluded that CD10 expression predict an aggressive behavior of breast cancer. This marker can be introduced as a determinant prognostic factor.