Assesment of apoptosis in breast cancer: association with histological grade and prognostic factors

Abstract

Apoptosis is an important factor of breast cancer growth and is associated to tumoral development. In the present study, the presence of apoptotic cells tumor was investigated in grade I, II and III invasive breast cancer and compared with another prognostic factors. In situ detection of tumor apoptotic cells was investigated by the TUNEL method. Tumor cell proliferation, hormonal receptor, c-erbB-2 and p53 was investigated using immuhistochemical procedure. Our data demonstrated that patients with high apoptotic rate are associated with higher levels of cell proliferation, positive p53 overexpression, negative hormonal expression and high grade breast cancer. Taken together, the results suggested that the rate of apoptosis reflect degrees of histological breast cancer and is associated with another prognostic factors playing an important role in breast cancer biological behavior.