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Inflammation markers on benign breast biopsy are associated with risk of invasive breast cancer in African American women

  • Epidemiology
  • Published:
Breast Cancer Research and Treatment Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Markers of inflammation, including crown-like structures of the breast (CLS-B) and infiltrating lymphocytes (IL), have been identified in breast tissue and associated with increased risk of breast cancer (BrCa), however most of this work has been performed in primarily non-Hispanic white women. Here, we examined whether CLS-B and IL are associated with invasive BrCa in African American (AA) women.

Methods

We assessed breast biopsies from three 5-year age-matched groups: BrCa-free AA women (50 Volunteer) from the Komen Normal Tissue Bank (KTB) and AA women with a clinically-indicated biopsy diagnosed with benign breast disease (BBD) from our Detroit cohort who developed BrCa (55 BBD-cancer) or did not develop BrCa (47 BBD only, year of biopsy matched to BBD-cancer). Mean adipocyte diameter and total adipose area were estimated from digital images using the Adiposoft plugin from ImageJ. Associations between CLS-B, IL, and BrCa among KTB and Detroit biopsies were assessed using multivariable multinomial and conditional logistic regression models.

Results

Among all biopsies, Volunteer and BBD only biopsies did not harbor CLS-B or IL at significantly different rates after adjusting for logarithm of adipocyte area, adipocyte diameter, and BMI. Among clinically-indicated BBD biopsies, BBD-cancer biopsies were more likely to exhibit CLS-B (odds ratio (OR) = 3.36, 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 1.33–8.48) or IL (OR = 4.95, 95% CI 1.76–13.9) than BBD only biopsies after adjusting for total adipocyte area, adipocyte diameter, proliferative disease, and BMI.

Conclusions

CLS-B and IL may serve as histological markers of BrCa risk in benign breast biopsies from AA women.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on request.

Abbreviations

AA:

African American

BBD:

Benign breast disease

BMI:

Body mass index

BCRAT:

Breast cancer risk assessment tool

BrCa:

Breast cancer

CI:

Confidence interval

CLS-B:

Crown-like structures of the breast

EA:

European American

H&E:

Hematoxylin & eosin

IL:

Infiltrating lymphocytes

KTB:

Susan G. Komen Normal Tissue Bank

OR:

Odds ratio

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Acknowledgements

Samples from the Susan G. Komen Tissue Bank at the IU Simon Cancer Center were used in this study. We thank contributors, including Indiana University who collected samples used in this study, as well as donors and their families, whose help and participation made this work possible. This work was supported by the Susan G. Komen for the Cure (IIRG #222547 to MLC, GTDR14299348 to MLC and ANS); National Institutes of Health (NCI 1F31CA22133301 to ANS). This work was partially supported by the Epidemiology Core, Health and Human Services contract HHSN261201300011, and NIH Center Grant P30CA022453 awarded to the Karmanos Cancer Institute at Wayne State University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Oncology, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, USA

    Asra N. Shaik, Julie L. Boerner, Julie J. Ruterbusch, Gregory Dyson & Michele L. Cote

  2. Department of Pathology, Anatomy and Laboratory Medicine, West Virginia University School of Medicine, Morgantown, WV, USA

    Katrin Kiavash

  3. Department of Pathology, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, USA

    Hany Deirawan, Sudeshna Bandyopadhyay & Rouba Ali-Fehmi

  4. Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, 4100 John R. St, Mailstop: MM04EP, Detroit, MI, 48201, USA

    Karri Stark, Julie L. Boerner, Hany Deirawan, Sudeshna Bandyopadhyay, Rouba Ali-Fehmi, Gregory Dyson & Michele L. Cote

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  1. Asra N. Shaik
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Contributions

ANS, JJR, GD, and MLC were involved in the conception and design of the study. ANS, KK, KS, JLB, JJR, HD, SB, and RAF were involved in the acquisition of data. ANS, JJR, and MLC were involved in study supervision. ANS, JJR, GD, and MLC were involved in the analysis and interpretation of data. All authors were involved in the writing, review, and/or revision of this manuscript and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michele L. Cote.

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Conflicts of interest

The study sponsors had no role in the design of the study; the collection, analysis or interpretation of the data; the writing of the manuscript; or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. All authors declare they have no conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval

This study was approved by Institutional Review Board of Wayne State University for human subject protection. The study complies with all current laws of the USA.

Informed consent

This retrospective study received a waiver for informed consent due to the minimal risk and feasibility of re-contacting patients from the Detroit BBD cohort, many who no longer receive care at Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Center, moved, or are deceased. Informed consent was obtained from participants donating tissue to the Susan G. Komen Normal Tissue Bank at Indiana University Simon Cancer Center; tissue was de-identified before inclusion in this study.

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Shaik, A.N., Kiavash, K., Stark, K. et al. Inflammation markers on benign breast biopsy are associated with risk of invasive breast cancer in African American women. Breast Cancer Res Treat 185, 831–839 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-020-05983-x

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