Author(s)

Kingsley Chidi Anochiwa¹, Sally Nkechinyere Onyeka Ibe², Eunice Anyalewechi Nwoke², Okwuchi Blessed Nworuh², Asinobi Oluchi³, Darlington Chidi Amadi¹, Emmanuel Okechukwu Nna⁴

¹Department of Pathology, Federal University Teaching Hospital, Owerri, Nigeria.
²Department of Public Health, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nigeria.
³College of Medicine, Imo State University, Owerri, Nigeria.
⁴Safety Molecular Pathology Laboratory, Molecular Pathology Institute, Enugu, Nigeria.

Background: Breast cancer is a genetically and clinically heterogeneous disease with multiple subtypes. The classification of these subtypes has evolved over the years. The most common and widely accepted classification of breast cancer is from an immunohistochemical perspective, based on the expression of the following hormone receptors: Estrogen Receptor (ER), Progesterone Receptor (PR) and Human Epidermal Growth Factor (HER2). Accordingly, the following four subtypes of breast cancer are widely recognized—Luminal A, Luminal B, HER2 Enriched and Triple Negative. Breast cancer management approaches include surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and targeted hormone therapy necessitated by molecular subtyping. Aims: This study aimed to determine the level of adherence to breast cancer molecular subtyping among women with breast cancer attending tertiary health facilities in Imo State. Methodology: Immunohistochemistry reports of women with breast cancer attending tertiary health facilities in Imo State were retrieved from patient’s case files. Tissue blocks were also retrieved from tissue block archives of both hospitals for women who did not take up immunohistochemistry services after their initial diagnosis and also those whose immunohistochemistry reports were not found in their case files. Results: Among the 121 women that participated in the study, there were in all 74 (61.2%) had molecular subtyping of their tumour blocks. Up to 45 (37.2%) did not go for molecular subtyping of their tumour blocks while 2 (1.7%) were not sure whether they had or not. Conclusion: It, therefore, depicts that the rate of uptake was found as 61.2% among the participants and there is a need to create more awareness of the importance of molecular subtyping, which necessitates the use of targeted hormone therapy.

Breast, Cancer, Subtypes, Immunohistochemistry, Estrogen, Progesterone, Human Epidermal Growth Factor 2, Receptor

Anochiwa, K. , Ibe, S. , Nwoke, E. , Nworuh, O. , Oluchi, A. , Amadi, D. and Nna, E. (2023) Level of Adherence to Breast Cancer Molecular Subtyping among Women with Breast Cancer Attending Tertiary Health Facilities. Journal of Biosciences and Medicines, 11, 255-264. doi: 10.4236/jbm.2023.1110023.