If adjuvant treatment selection is to be based also on the molecular subtype in synchronous lymph node metastases, chemotherapy would have been advocated for patients shifting from luminal A to a non-luminal A subtype, alongside endocrine treatment.
> -wrap-foot> lymphmph node A molecular subtype was assignable in 33 of 39 ALDH1 positive tumors, 16 (48.5%) of which were basal, 3 (9%) were HER2 overexpressing and 14 (42.5%) were luminal (Table 7).
Present results also revealed the highest percentage (51.35%) of positive lymph node status for TN molecular subtype.
ALK gene amplification did not show any association with age, lymph node involvement, distant metastasis, molecular subtype of breast cancer and tumor stage.
In contrast, another study with Afro-American and Hispanic women revealed the highest percentage (60.20%) of positive lymph node status for TN molecular subtype [ 15].
HER2-amplifying human breast adenocarcinomas, a breast cancer molecular subtype associated with a very poor prognosis and lymph node metastases, express high levels of CXCL12 in the stroma.
Hence, the shift of a molecular subtype towards a more aggressive subtype in the metastatic lymph node is a hypothesis-generating finding in line with recent publications [ 21].
ANOVA analysis was performed to calculate the relationship between Ki67 change and potential influencing factors including: age, menopausal status, surgery type, histopathology, tumor grade, tumor size, lymph node status, ER, PR, HER2, molecular subtype, and STI.
A higher CMI (quantitative values) significantly correlated with higher MAI (p = 0.040), although there was no association to lymph node status, localization of metastases, and molecular subtype.
In 9/85 cases (11%) the molecular subtype classification was discordant between the primary tumour and the lymph node metastasis (Table 2).
