C-Met in invasive breast cancer: is there a relationship with the basal-like subtype?
BACKGROUND
Basal-like (BL) breast cancer is an aggressive form of breast cancer with limited treatment options. Recent work has identified BL breast cancer as a biologically distinct form of triple-negative breast cancer, with a worse outlook. The receptor tyrosine kinase c-Met is a novel therapeutic target associated with reduced survival in breast cancer. Few studies have specifically addressed the association between c-Met and molecular subtype of breast cancer, yet this is a key consideration when selecting patients for clinical trials. The aim of this study is to evaluate c-Met expression in a large cohort of invasive breast cancers and in particular, its correlation with molecular subtype.


METHODS
Immunohistochemistry for c-Met was performed and evaluated on 1274 invasive breast cancers using tissue microarray technology. The c-Met scores were correlated with molecular subtype, survival, and other standard clinicopathological prognostic factors.


RESULTS
Multivariate logistic regression showed c-Met was independently associated with BL status (odds ratio=6.44, 95% confidence interval=1.74-23.78, P=.005). There was a positive correlation between c-Met and Her2 (P=.005) and an inverse correlation with tumor size (P<.001). C-Met was an independent poor prognostic factor at Cox regression analysis in all subtypes (hazard ratio=1.85, 95% confidence interval=1.07-3.19, P=.027) and there was a trend toward reduced survival in BL tumors overexpressing c-Met, but this was not significant.


CONCLUSIONS
C-Met is independently associated with BL breast cancer. In the future, patients with BL tumors should be included in clinical trials of anti-c-Met therapy.
['Ho-Yen|Colan M|CM|', 'Green|Andrew R|AR|', 'Rakha|Emad A|EA|', 'Brentnall|Adam R|AR|', 'Ellis|Ian O|IO|', 'Kermorgant|Stephanie|S|', 'Jones|J L|JL|']
D000328:Adult D000368:Aged D001943:Breast Neoplasms D015331:Cohort Studies D005260:Female D006801:Humans D016015:Logistic Models D008875:Middle Aged D016017:Odds Ratio D011379:Prognosis D016016:Proportional Hazards Models D019859:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-met D018719:Receptor, ErbB-2
c-Met breast cancer basal-like triple negative