@article{3175791,
    title = "Thyroid hormone receptor alpha (TRa) tissue expression in ductal
invasive breast cancer: A study combining quantitative
immunohistochemistry with digital slide image analysis",
    author = "Charalampoudis, P. and Agrogiannis, G. and Kontzoglou, K. and Kouraklis, and G. and Sotiropoulos, G. C.",
    journal = "EJSO",
    year = "2017",
    volume = "43",
    number = "8",
    pages = "1428-1432",
    publisher = "Elsevier Sci Ltd, Exeter, United Kingdom",
    doi = "10.1016/j.ejso.2017.05.012",
    keywords = "Breast cancer; Thyroid hormone receptor alpha; Tri-iodothyronine;
Immunohistochemistry; Image analysis; Tissue expression; Ductal invasive
breast carcinoma",
    abstract = "Background: In breast cancer, hormonal receptors hold promise for
developing novel targeted therapies. The thyroid exerts its actions via
the thyroid hormone receptors alpha and beta. The clinical significance
of the expression of thyroid hormone receptors in breast cancer is
unclear.
Material and methods: We studied thyroid hormone receptor alpha (TRa)
expression in 82 samples from 41 women with ductal invasive breast
cancer and no thyroid disease. We performed quantitative
immunohistochemistry with digital image analysis and correlated TRa
expression with clinicopathological parameters.
Results: TRa was expressed in both normal breast epithelium and breast
cancer, but expression in breast cancer was significantly lower. TRa was
expressed significantly less in larger and grade III tumors. Conversely,
breast cancers with lymphovascular invasion showed increased TRa
expression compared to cancers without lymphovascular invasion. TRa
expression was not significantly different between node positive and
node-negative breast cancers, or among different hormonal profiles and
intrinsic subtypes.
Discussion: This is the first-in-human study to combine quantitative
immunohistochemistry with image analysis to study TRa expression in
women with ductal invasive breast cancer and no clinical or biochemical
evidence of thyroid dysfunction. We confirm that TRa is expressed in
both normal and malignant breast epithelium and suggest that TRa
expression is downregulated during breast carcinogenesis. Larger and
higher grade breast cancers demonstrate partial loss in TRa expression.
Alterations in TRa expression take place even in the absence of clinical
or biochemical thyroid disease. The underlying mechanism of these
findings and their potential significance in survival and relapse
mandate further research. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd, BASO similar to The
Association for Cancer Surgery, and the European Society of Surgical
Oncology. All rights reserved."
}