Clinicopathological significance and prognostic effect of CD133 expression in invasive ductal breast carcinoma

Background Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide. CD133 is a commonly identified cancer stem cell marker in solid tumors including the breast. Aim of work The aim of this work is to assess the immunohistochemical expression of CD133 in breast carcinoma and study its relation to the already established prognostic markers and the patient survival. Materials and methods This retrospective study was carried out on formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue blocks of 100 cases of invasive duct breast carcinoma that underwent modified radical mastectomy without receiving preoperative neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Immunohistochemical staining for CD133 was performed for all cases. Results All the cases were women. Overall, 41% of the studied patients were older than 50 years. Fifty percent of the cases showed right breast affection, 67% were 2 to less than 5 cm in its greatest dimension, 45% were of grade II, 57% showed lymph node metastasis, 39% of the studied cases were of stage I, 37% were of stage II, and 24% were of stage III. Thirty-seven percent were associated with lymphovascular tumor emboli. In addition, 37 (37%) cases were of the luminal subtype, 27% were of nonluminal subtype, and 26% were triple-negative breast carcinoma subtype. Statistical significant relation was observed between CD133 expression and tumor size ( P ≤0.001), lymph node metastasis ( P ≤0.001), tumor stages ( P ≤0.001), vascular tumor emboli ( P ≤0.001), negative estrogen receptor, negative progesterone receptor, and positive human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-neu status ( P ≤0.001), and tumor recurrence ( P ≤0.001). On the contrary, there was a statistically insignificant relation between CD133 expression in invasive breast duct carcinoma and patient’s age ( P =0.29), the side of affection ( P =0.46), those associated with ductal carcinoma in situ ( P =0.110), and tumor grade ( P =0.71). Among the 100 studied cases, 41 (41%) cases died during the period of follow-up, and only 45 (45%) cases showed tumor recurrence. The patients with score 3 of CD133 expression had the least overall survival, with statistically significant difference ( P =0.000) and the least disease-free survival. Conclusion CD133 was overexpressed in breast cancers with aggressive features.