Immunohistochemical Expression and Potential Value of c-MYC in Non-invasive and Invasive Mammary Carcinoma

Background: Breast cancer (BC) is the most prevalent cancer diagnosed globally. In Egypt, BC is the most common type of female cancer, about 22,000 new cases diagnosed every year. The most common variants of breast carcinoma are invasive duct carcinoma (IDC) and invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC). Non-invasive BC has malignant cells within the ducts without stromal invasion. Molecular subtypes of BC are including Luminal A, Luminal B, HER2 enriched and basal like subtypes. c-Myelocytomatosis (MYC) protein is a transcription factor and has role in DNA synthesis, cellular proliferation, differentiation and immortalization. c-MYC in BC cells can promote tumor progression by facilitating invasion and metastasis.Objectives: Evaluation of c-MYC in BC and its relation with clinicopathological parameters and molecular subtypes.Patients and methods: 52 cases of BC were histopathologically evaluated using a standard H&E stain and assessed immunohistochemicaly for c-MYC protein expression.Results: c-MYC expression and higher tumor grade showed a significant association (p-value =0.040 and molecular subtypes, especially TNBC (p-value=0.010).Conclusion: Elevated c-MYC expression is related to poor prognostic pathological parameters of BC.