MORPHOLOGICAL AND IMMUNOHISTOCHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND MOLECULAR PROFILE OF BREAST CANCER: ROLE IN THE CHOICE AND EFFECTIVENESS OF NEOADUVANT SYSTEMIC THERAPY AND PROGNOSTIC SIGNIFICANCE

Romanukha K. H., Zavizion V. F.

MORPHOLOGICAL AND IMMUNOHISTOCHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND MOLECULAR PROFILE OF BREAST CANCER: ROLE IN THE CHOICE AND EFFECTIVENESS OF NEOADUVANT SYSTEMIC THERAPY AND PROGNOSTIC SIGNIFICANCE


Show/Download

About the author:

Romanukha K. H., Zavizion V. F.

Heading:

PATHOMORPHOLOGY

Type of article:

Scientific article

Annotation:

Despite the existence of a significant number of studies devoted to individual aspects of morphology, immunohistochemical profile, and molecular subtypes of breast cancer, the problem of their integrated assessment in terms of their impact on the choice of neoadjuvant systemic therapy remains insufficiently studied, especially in the context of everyday clinical practice. The aim of this study was to comprehensively assess the significance of morphological characteristics, immunohistochemical parameters, and the molecular profile of breast cancer in selecting and evaluating the effectiveness of neoadjuvant systemic therapy, as well as to determine their prognostic significance for surgical tactics and local control. The study established and demonstrated that the dominant morphological forms of breast cancer in the analyzed cohort are tubular carcinoma and invasive carcinoma of nonspecific type, which together account for more than 60% of cases. At the same time, the significant prevalence of HER2-positive and triple-negative breast cancer (21.2% and 18.2%, respectively) creates the conditions for an expectedly high level of complete pathomorphological response when standardized therapy is administered. The Ki-67 index has demonstrated high discriminatory power in distinguishing between tumors with low and high proliferative activity, has significant prognostic value, and directly influences the choice of treatment tactics. At the same time, HER2-positive and triple-negative subtypes are characterized by the highest levels of proliferation (median Ki-67 of 32% and 42%, respectively), consistent with their clinical and biological characteristics and confirming a high probability of response to intensive systemic chemotherapy.

Tags:

breast cancer, immunohistochemical analysis, Ki-67, morphological characteristics of tumors, treatment tactics

Bibliography:

  1. Corti C, Batra-Sharma H, Kelsten M, Shatsky RA, Garrido-Castro AC, Gradishar WJ. Systemic Therapy in Breast Cancer. Am Soc Clin Oncol Educ Book. 2024;44(3):e432442.
  2. Zaborowski AM, Wong SM. Neoadjuvant systemic therapy for breast cancer. Br J Surg. 2023;110(7):765-72.
  3. Kodali A, Gadi VK. Preoperative Systemic Therapy for Breast Cancer. Surg Clin North Am. 2023;103(1):201-17.
  4. Incoronato M, Grimaldi AM, Cavaliere C, Inglese M, Mirabelli P, Monti S, et al. Relationship between functional imaging and immunohistochemical markers and prediction of breast cancer subtype: a PET/MRI study. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2018;45(10):1680- 93.
  5. Hotko YS, Stryzhak D, Zhero SV, Ihnatko VY. Changes in morphological and immunohistochemical parameters of tumors during neoadjuvant hormone therapy in postmenopausal patients with luminal type of breast cancer. Wiad Lek. 2025;78(4):710-6.
  6. Johnson KS, Conant EF, Soo MS. Molecular Subtypes of Breast Cancer: A Review for Breast Radiologists. J Breast Imaging. 2021;3(1):12- 24.
  7. Carvalho E, Canberk S, Schmitt F, Vale N. Molecular Subtypes and Mechanisms of Breast Cancer: Precision Medicine Approaches for Targeted Therapies. Cancers (Basel). 2025;17(7):1102.
  8. Masood S. Breast cancer subtypes: morphologic and biologic characterization. Womens Health (Lond). 2016;12(1):103-19.
  9. Hu X, Chen W, Li F, Ren P, Wu H, Zhang C, et al. Expression changes of ER, PR, HER2, and Ki-67 in primary and metastatic breast cancer and its clinical significance. Front Oncol. 2023;13:1053125.
  10. Sun H, Sahin AA, Ding Q. Updates on utility of immunohistochemistry in diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer. Hum Pathol. 2025;162:105821.
  11. Hirmas N, Holtschmidt J, Loibl S. Shifting the Paradigm: The Transformative Role of Neoadjuvant Therapy in Early Breast Cancer. Cancers (Basel). 2024;16(18):3236.
  12. Tan PH, Ellis I, Allison K, Brogi E, Fox SB, Lakhani S, et al. The 2019 World Health Organization classification of tumours of the breast. Histopathology. 2020;77(2):181-5.
  13. Ivanchuk MA, Malyk IV, Knihnitska TV, Lukashiv TO. Statystychnyy analiz vidnosnykh velychyn u medytsyni. Klinichna ta eksperymentalna patolohiya. 2019;4(70):109-14. [in Ukrainian].
  14. Yuan Y, Xu M, Ren Y, He L, Chen J, Sun L. Clinical Value of Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound in Breast Cancer Diagnosis. Comput Math Methods Med. 2022;2022:2017026.
  15. Lother D, Robert M, Elwood E, Smith S, Tunariu N, Johnston SRD, et al. Imaging in metastatic breast cancer, CT, PET/CT, MRI, WB-DWI, CCA: review and new perspectives. Cancer Imaging. 2023;23(1):53.
  16. Salgado R, Aftimos P, Sotiriou C, Desmedt C. Evolving paradigms in multifocal breast cancer. Semin Cancer Biol. 2015;31:111-8.
  17. Tong Y, Sun F, Zhang C, Yang S, Yu Z, Zhao Y. Multifocal/multicentric breast cancer: Does each focus matter? Cancer Med. 2023;12(7):8815- 24.
  18. Loibl S, André F, Bachelot T, Barrios CH, Bergh J, Burstein HJ, et al. Early breast cancer: ESMO Clinical Practice Guideline for diagnosis, treatment and follow-up. Ann Oncol. 2024;35(2):159-82.
  19. Ditsch N, Gnant M, Thomssen C, Harbeck N. St. Gallen/Vienna 2025 Summary of Key Messages on Therapy in Early Breast Cancer from the 2025 St. Gallen International Breast Cancer Conference. Breast Care (Basel). 2025. DOI: 10.1159/000546080.
  20. Kravchun TA, Samusyeva AA, Zaychuk VV. Markuvannya yak metod rutynnoho kontrolyu vidpovidi pukhlyny na terapiyu. Praktychna onkolohiya. 2021;4(1):45-51. [in Ukrainian].
  21. Sirico M, Virga A, Conte B, Urbini M, Ulivi P, Gianni C, et al. Neoadjuvant therapy for luminal breast tumors: State of the art, challenges and future perspectives. Crit Rev Oncol Hematol. 2023;181:103900.
  22. Takada M, Toi M. Neoadjuvant treatment for HER2-positive breast cancer. Chin Clin Oncol. 2020;9(3):32.
  23. van den Ende NS, Nguyen AH, Jager A, Kok M, Debets R, van Deurzen CHM. Triple-Negative Breast Cancer and Predictive Markers of Response to Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy: A Systematic Review. Int J Mol Sci. 2023;24(3):2969.
  24. Yüksel C, Aksel B, Doğan L. Luminal A Breast Cancer: How Feasible is Omitting Axillary Dissection Without Neoadjuvant Therapy. Breast J. 2022;2022:8284814.
  25. Toli MA, Liu X, Massa D, Lando S, Boman C, Tsiknakis N, et al. Prognostic significance of tumor Ki-67 dynamics during neoadjuvant treatment in patients with breast cancer: a population-based cohort study. Lancet Reg Health Eur. 2025;58:101432.

Publication of the article:

«Bulletin of problems biology and medicine», 2025 Issue 4, 179, 370-380 pages, index UDC 618.19-006.6-07

DOI:

10.29254/2077-4214-2025-4-179-370-380

Was this article helpful?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


The reCAPTCHA verification period has expired. Please reload the page.