Avaliação de marcadores de células progenitoras em cultura primária de células tumorais de câncer de mama

Abstract

Breast cancer (BC) includes different subtypes, among them Luminal A and B, HER2, and triple-negative. In all cases, cancer stem cells (CSC) seem to contribute to the development and progression of the disease and are correlated with the ability to conduct metastases. Until present molecular markers of CSC have been described, but no clinical applicability has been attributed. Therefore, investigating biomarkers may contribute to the understanding of the different subtypes of breast tumors. This study aimed to evaluate the relation of some molecular markers found in breast dysplastic and tumor cells and correlate them with the patients clinical stage. Six patients diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma were submitted to conservative and radical surgery, and their tumor samples were classified according to their malignancy. Immunohistochemistry analysis was initially conducted and classified the samples as Luminal A (n=1), Luminal B (n=4), and positive HER2 (n=1) subtype. Tumor and benign cells were cultured using an enzymatic process, and molecular markers of CSC were identified by flow cytometry. There was an increase of surface glycoproteins CD44 and Ck and a reduction of CD24 in the tumor isolation sample when compared to the benign one. Concerning different BC subtypes, we associate the lower CD24 and Ck values with the molecular subtype, since there was less expression of CD24 and Ck in9 the HER2+ sample when compared to Luminal A and B. Besides, the low indices of Ck were related with a worse prognosis, HER2+. The analysis of these biomarkers allowed a relationship with molecular subtype, tumor grade, clinical stage, worse prognosis, and clinical management of the patients, contributing to the understanding of BC. [resumo fornecido pelo autor]