Breast cancer patients in rural Appalachia have a high prevalence of obesity and poverty, together with more triple-negative phenotypes. We reviewed clinical records for tumor receptor status and time to distant metastasis. Body mass index, tumor size, grade, nodal status, and receptor status were related to metastatic patterns. For 687 patients, 13.8% developed metastases to bone (n = 42) or v...

Cyclin E is aberrantly expressed in many types of cancer including breast cancer. High levels of the full length as well as the low molecular weight isoforms of cyclin E are associated with poor prognosis of breast cancer patients. Notably, cyclin E overexpression is also correlated with triple-negative basal-like breast cancers, which lack specific therapeutic targets. In this study, we used s...

Immunotherapy encompasses both vaccines that direct immune responses to tumor-associated antigens, and checkpoint blocking antibodies that inhibit immune system suppression by targeting key pathways mediated by cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen 4, programmed death 1 (PD-1), and programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1). Both of these approaches currently are being explored as potential strategi...

Triple-negative breast cancers (TNBC) have poorer outcomes than hormone positive or human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive breast cancers, with chemotherapy being the usual standard of care. Veliparib, a poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor, has been studied in both breast cancer susceptibility genes 1 and 2 (BRCA)-mutation related and sporadic cancers as a single agent...

BACKGROUND The increase in breast cancer risk during pregnancy and postpartum is well known; however, the molecular phenotype of breast cancers occurring shortly after pregnancy has not been well studied. Given this, we investigated whether nulliparity and the time interval since pregnancy among parous women affects the breast cancer phenotype in young women. MATERIALS AND METHODS We examined...

Approximately 15% of breast cancers lack expression of oestrogen receptors (ER), progesterone receptors (PR), and human epidermal growth factor receptors (HER2).1 This triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive disease: About 30% of patients will develop metastatic disease, whereby symptomatic visceral and brain metastases are common and the median survival is approximately 13 months...

The triple-negative breast cancer subtype is highly aggressive and has no defined therapeutic target. Fyn-related kinase (FRK) is a non-receptor tyrosine kinase, reported to be downregulated in breast cancer and gliomas, where it is suggested to have tumor suppressor activity. We examined the expression profile of FRK in a panel of 40 breast cancer cells representing all the major subtypes, as ...

Greater than 70% of human breast cancers express the androgen receptor (AR). Emerging preclinical and clinical data suggest that AR may play a role in breast cancer pathogenesis and may serve as a therapeutic target in certain more difficult-to-treat breast cancer subtypes, such as triple-negative breast cancer. Although this is an area of active investigation, the clinical significance of this...

BACKGROUND In this study, the prognostic impact of the presence of the multifocal or multicentric tumor (MMT) and its association with molecular subtypes were investigated. PATIENTS AND METHODS We investigated the breast cancer metastasis and survival in patients with multifocal or multicentric invasive foci in the same breast. The study population includes 2882 patients in the Seoul National...

Triple-negative breast cancers are associated with poor clinical outcomes and new therapeutic strategies are clearly needed. Gallotannin (Gltn) has been previously demonstrated to have potent anti-tumor properties against cholangiocarcinoma in mice, but little is known regarding its capacity to suppress tumor outgrowth in breast cancer models. We tested Gltn for potential growth inhibitory prop...