Immunohistochemical subtypes of breast cancer and their association with demographic and clinico-pathological characteristics in the Limpopo Province

Abstract

Background: This study was designed to determine the relationship of immunohistochemical subtypes of breast cancer and clinicopathological features and demographic information in Limpopo since there has been no data published on the association of immunohistochemical subtypes, clinicopathological features and demographic characteristics in recent years. Methods: Data was obtained from records of patients diagnosed with breast cancer between 2015 and 2020. Chi-Square and ANOVA tests were performed, and results considered significant at p ≤ 0.05. Results: The mean age was 50.32 ± 11.40, estrogen receptor positive(ER+), progesterone receptor positive(PR+) and human epidermal growth receptor 2 positive(HER2+) prevalence were 73.5%, 62.3% and 26.5% respectively. More than half of the patients (54.3%) had a Ki-67 level >15%. Grade II tumors were the predominant type of tumors in this study (51.7%). 43.7% of the cases showed lymph node involvement. Luminal B subtype was the most predominant immunohistochemical subtype in the study (46.4%), followed by Luminal A (24.5 %), TNBC (19.9%) and HER2- enriched (6.6%). 2.6 % of the cases were classified as undetermined. Conclusion: A significant association was observed between immunohistochemical subtypes and tumor grade