Comparison of Mast Cell Density and Prognostic Factors in Invasive Breast Carcinoma: A Single-Centre Study in Malaysia

BACKGROUND: Mast cells influence tumour growth, neo-angiogenesis and the propensity for metastasis by contributing to innate and adaptive immune responses in the tumour microenvironment. The number of mast cells has increased in various malignant tumours and their abundance has been associated with either a favourable or unfavourable prognosis. This study investigated the significant difference in stromal mast cell density among multiple prognostic factor groups in invasive breast carcinoma.

METHODS: CD117 (c-KIT) antibodies were used to stain 160 formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded invasive breast carcinoma tissues to demonstrate the presence of mast cells. Then the labelled mast cells were counted in 10 fields at 400× magnification and the mean value was used to represent the mast cell density.

RESULTS: The demographic distribution revealed that most patients were 40 years old or older (92.5%) and of Malay ethnicity (66.3%). With regard to prognostic factors, the most prevalent subtype was invasive carcinoma of no special type (80.6%), followed by tumour grade 3 (41.3%), T2 tumour size (63.1%), N0 lymph node stage (51.3%), presence of lymphovascular invasion (59.4%), positive oestrogen (64.4%) and progesterone receptors (53.1%), and negative human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) expression (75.0%). However, there was no significant difference in stromal mast cell density among the different demographic and prognostic factor groups in invasive breast carcinoma.

CONCLUSION: The findings from this study suggest that stromal mast cells do not play a significant role in preventing or promoting tumour growth in invasive breast carcinoma.