Distribution of Breast Cancer Biomarkers by Age in Iran

Background and Objectives : Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer related death globally and presents as the most common female malignancy in Iran. Multiple factors are associated with an increased risk of developing breast cancer; for example first degree family history of breast cancer, BRCA1, 2 mutation and history of atypical hyperplasia on biopsy are the most important risk factors for developing breast cancer. Some prognostic factors are classically used that it would help us to either choosing recommended optimal treatment or recognizing the prognosis. In several studies it is shown that these factors have different patterns in age groups or histopathologic types. The aim of this study was to determine the age distribution of hormone receptors and biomarkers and determine their relation to the histopathologic types. Methods : Data were gathered from the medical records of Baqiyatallah hospital, Tehran, Iran. Breast cancer patients whose disease was confirmed by pathologic studies and had immunohistochemical profile, were included. Estrogen receptor (ER), Progesterone receptors (PR), HER2/neu and p53 were selected as biomarkers of this study. Results : Mean age of patients was 49.47±12.50 years (range 20 to 86). The most common histopathologic type was invasive ductal carcinoma. Distribution of ER and PR against age detected similar; ER positivity increased with age and it peaked in fifth decade of life, and PR positivity showed more regular pattern and it also peaked in fifth decade of life (p 0.05). Conclusions : Our breast cancer patients were generally younger than patients round the world. The different distribution pattern of biomarkers in our studies in comparison with similar studies, may suggest different biologic behavior of breast cancer in our patients. Further studies will help illuminate this point.