Cyclin D1 and prognosis in human breast cancer

✍ Scribed by Cheryl Gillett; Paul Smith; Walter Gregory; Michael Richards; Rosemary Millis; Gordon Peters; Diana Barnes

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: French
• Weight: 753 KB
• Volume: 69
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0020-7136
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0215(19960422)69:2<92::aid-ijc4>3.0.co;2-q

✦ Synopsis

We have used immunohistochemical staining to assess the expression of cyclin D I in formalin-fixed sections of 345 breast carcinomas, dating back 20 years. Clinical follow-up data were available on all patients. Approximately 50% of the tumours showed excessive nuclear staining for cyclin DI as compared with normal epithelium. Some tumours showed strong cytoplasmic staining in the absence of nuclear staining, and around 25% of the tumours were judged to be negative for nuclear cyclin D I.

Contrary to expectations, moderate/strong staining for cyclin D I was associated with improved relapse-free and overall survival relative to patients whose tumours stained weakly or negatively. Conversely, tumours that were considered negative for cyclin DI staining had an adverse prognosis, and the poor outcome was further accentuated if the tumours were also oestrogen receptor-negative. A possible explanation for our findings is that tumours in which cyclin D I levels are abnormally low may have sustained mutations in other genes, such as R 6 I and that it is this abnormality that has the more significant impact on survival from breast cancer.