Breast Cancer in a Nigerian Cohort: Histopathology, Immunohistochemical Profile and Survival

Abstract

Aims: The aim was to describe the histological and immunohistochemical characteristics of breast cancer in a Nigerian cohort and correlate the findings with the clinical outcome of management.
Methods and results: The histology of 89 breast cancers was reviewed. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) for estrogen receptor (ER) and Her2/neu was done on 73 cases and progesterone receptor (PR) on 67cases. Age ranged from 22-82 years (mean = 48±12.3).
Invasive ductal carcinoma of no special type (NOS) was the commonest histological variant. Sixty two cases (69.7%) were grade III tumours. IHC was negative for ER in 62%, PR 79%. Her2/neu over-expression was seen in only 4%. About 53% (31/58) of the tumours
were negative for all the three markers. At presentation, 68.2% of the patients had stage III and stage IV disease. After 5 years of follow up, 20% of the ER/PR positive patients were dead, 10% had local recurrences and 70% were lost to follow-up. Among the triple negative
patients, 50% were alive and well with no recurrence, 20% were dead and 30% were lost to follow-up. All the patients with Her2 positive tumours were dead within 1-2 years.
Conclusion: Our data suggest that breast cancer in Nigeria occurs at younger age, is of high histological grade and is more likely to be triple negative. Clinical outcome tends to be good among the triple negative patients with early stage disease.