The relationship between CD151 and TSPAN8 in invasive breast carcinomas with survival and routine histopathologic/immunohistochemical parameters

Aim: The aim of this study is to compare the expression of metastasis-associated tetraspanins CD151 and TSPAN8 with routine histopathologic and clinical parameters in invasive breast carcinomas and evaluate their role in breast carcinomas as new therapeutic targets. Material and Methods: The invasive breast carcinoma cases which were diagnosed between 2008 and 2011 without antecedent neoadjuvant chemotherapy were evaluated. The clinical data and sufficient tumor tissue in parafine blocks were obtained in 98 of these cases. CD151 and TSPAN8 were studied by immunohistochemical methods. We investigated the relationship between the immunohistochemical findings and clinical and histopathological parameters. Results: In the primary tumor tissues, overexpression of CD151 and TSPAN8 were found in 37,9% (36/95) and 26,5% (26/98) of the cases, respectively. For both markers, statistical significance was found in the comparison of primary tumor-lymph node metastasis and primary tumor-in situ lesion expressions. It was also determined that CD151 correlated with TIL status and c-erbB2, TSPAN8 with ER, Ki-67 and p53. There was no statistical significance between survival and any other parameters. Conclusion: The prognostic and predictive value of CD151 in breast carcinomas has been demonstrated in previous studies. On the other hand there are few studies in the literature on TSPAN8, another metastasis-associated tetraspanin. The results of our study may contribute to the literature especially in terms of determining the overexpression of TSPAN8 in breast carcinomas and its relation with routine parameters hopefully arising new research ideas.