Breast Carcinoma Receptor Expression in a Caribbean Population

Michael J Ramdass; Joshua Gonzales; Dale Maharaj; Donald Simeon; Shaheeba Barrow

doi:10.1055/s-0042-1756632

Breast Carcinoma Receptor Expression in a Caribbean Population

Surg J (N Y). 2022 Sep 19;8(3):e262-e265. doi: 10.1055/s-0042-1756632. eCollection 2022 Jul.

Authors

Michael J Ramdass^{1

2}, Joshua Gonzales³, Dale Maharaj², Donald Simeon⁴, Shaheeba Barrow⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Clinical Surgical Sciences, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies.
² Department of Surgery, Port of Spain General Hospital, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
³ School of Medicine, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland.
⁴ Caribbean Centre for Health Systems Research and Development, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies.
⁵ Department of Pathology, Port of Spain General Hospital, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.

Abstract

Trinidad and Tobago are islands in the Southern Caribbean with a unique mix of races within the population consisting of East Indian (EI) (37.6%), Afro-Caribbean (AC) (36.3%), mixed (24.2%), and Caucasian, Chinese, Lebanese, Syrian, Amerindian, and Spanish groups accounting for 1.9%. It makes it suitable for a comparison of breast carcinoma receptor expression within a fixed environment. This study included 257 women with an age range of 28 to 93 years (mean = 57.2, standard deviation = 15.0), peak age group of 51 to 60 consisting of 105 EI, 119 AC, and 33 mixed descent. Invasive ductal carcinoma accounted for 88%, invasive lobular 9.7%, and ductal carcinoma in situ 2.3%. The triple-negative rates were 24.8, 33.6, and 30.3% for EI, AC, and mixed races, respectively, with the Pearson's chi-square test revealing statistical significance for the AC versus EI ( p < 0.001); AC versus mixed ( p < 0.001); and EI versus mixed ( p = 0.014) groups. The overall estrogen (ER), progesterone (PR), and human epidermal growth receptor (HER) expression negative rates were 52, 64, and 79%, respectively. Chi-square test of the following combinations: ER +/PR +/HER + ; ER +/PR +/HER - ; ER -/PR -/HER + ; ER +/PR -/HER + ; ER +/PR -/HER - ; ER -/PR +/HER + ; ER -/PR +/HER- revealed no statistical differences ( p = 0.689).

Keywords: Afro-Caribbean; Caribbean; East Indian; West Indian; breast carcinoma; receptors.

The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, permitting unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction so long as the original work is properly cited. ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ).