Genomic Instability: A Stronger Prognostic Marker Than Proliferation for Early Stage Luminal Breast Carcinomas

<div><p>Background</p><p>The accurate prognosis definition to tailor treatment for early luminal invasive breast carcinoma patients remains challenging.</p> <p>Materials and Methods</p><p>Two hundred fourteen early luminal breast carcinomas were genotyped with single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) array to determine the number of chromosomal breakpoints as a marker of genomic instability. Proliferation was assessed by KI67 (immunohistochemistry) and genomic grade index (transcriptomic analysis). IHC3 (IHC4 score for HER2 negative tumors) was also determined.</p> <p>Results</p><p>In the training set (109 cases), the optimal cut-off was 34 breakpoints with a specificity of 0.94 and a sensitivity of 0.57 (Area under the curve (AUC): 0.81[0.71; 0.91]). In the validation set (105 cases), the outcome of patients with > 34 breakpoints (11 events / 22 patients) was poorer (logrank test <i>p</i> < 0.001; Relative Risk (RR): 3.7 [1.73; 7.92]), than that of patients with < 34 breakpoints (19 events / 83 patients).Whereas genomic grade and KI67 had a significant prognostic value in univariate analysis in contrast to IHC3 that failed to have a statistical significant prognostic value in this series, the number of breakpoints remained the only significant parameter predictive of outcome (RR: 3.47, Confidence Interval (CI [1.29; 9.31], <i>p</i> = 0.014)) in multivariate analysis .</p> <p>Conclusion</p><p>Genomic instability, defined herein as a high number of chromosomal breakpoints, in early stage luminal breast carcinoma is a stronger prognostic marker than proliferation.</p>