Mast Cells as an Indicator and Prognostic Marker in Molecular Subtypes of Breast Cancer

BACKGROUND/AIM: Mast cells (MCs) represent the most controversial non-malignant element of the tumor microenvironment. Our aim was to study how MCs density and distribution (intratumoral-MCit versus peritumoral-MCpt) relate to tumor grade and molecular subtypes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: MCs tryptase immunohistochemistry was performed on 80 cases of breast carcinomas. RESULTS: For Luminal A tumors, a partial correlation was detected between MCit and progesterone receptor (PR) (p=0.005). Luminal B tumors showed a significant correlation between MCpt and age (p=0.009), estrogen receptor (ER) (p=0.017) and PR (p=0.035). MCit and MCpt were strongly interrelated in this subtype (p=0.002) and in triple-negative breast cancers (p=0.002). In HER2 subtype, MCpt tumors were significantly correlated with HER2 (p=0.044). In G2 tumors, MCpt correlated with ER (p=0.015) and PR (p=0.038) while in G3 tumors ER correlated with both MCit (p=0.009) and MCpt (p=0.000487) tumors. CONCLUSION: MCs dynamics are strongly influenced by hormone receptors and HER2 status. MCit increased in aggressive tumor types and is a worse prognostic factor.