Prognostic Significance of Nuclear Factor Kappa B (p65) among Breast Cancer Patients in Cape Coast Teaching Hospital

Precious Barnes; Abraham Mensah; Leonard Derkyi-Kwarteng; Ernest Adankwa; Elvis Agbo; Ewura Seidu Yahaya; Benjamin Amoani; George Adjei; Samuel Mingyigilougu Apewe Ka-Chungu; Patrick Kafui Akakpo; Faustina Halm-Lai; Kwabena Dankwa; Daniel Amoako-Sakyi; Samuel Victor Nuvor; Dorcas Obiri-Yeboah; Roland Osei Saahene

doi:10.1159/000539241

Prognostic Significance of Nuclear Factor Kappa B (p65) among Breast Cancer Patients in Cape Coast Teaching Hospital

Med Princ Pract. 2024 May 10;33(4):1-11. doi: 10.1159/000539241. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Precious Barnes¹, Abraham Mensah², Leonard Derkyi-Kwarteng³, Ernest Adankwa⁴, Elvis Agbo⁵, Ewura Seidu Yahaya⁶, Benjamin Amoani⁷, George Adjei⁸, Samuel Mingyigilougu Apewe Ka-Chungu⁹, Patrick Kafui Akakpo³, Faustina Halm-Lai², Kwabena Dankwa², Daniel Amoako-Sakyi², Samuel Victor Nuvor², Dorcas Obiri-Yeboah², Roland Osei Saahene²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physician Assistant Studies, School of Allied Health Sciences, College of Health and Allied Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana.
² Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medical Sciences, College of Health and Allied Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana.
³ Department of Pathology, School of Medical Sciences, College of Health and Allied Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana.
⁴ Department of Medical Diagnostics, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.
⁵ Department of Human Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, College of Medicine, Jinggangshan University, Ji'an, China.
⁶ Department of Pharmacology, School of Medical Sciences, College of Health and Allied Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana.
⁷ Department of Biomedical Sciences, School of Allied Health Sciences, College of Health and Allied Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana.
⁸ Department of Community Medicine, School of Medical Sciences, College of Health and Allied Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana.
⁹ Department of Pathology, Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Kumasi, Ghana.

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer among African women, with high mortality rates in Ghana. Nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kB) has been associated with tumor progression in breast cancer. However, its clinical validation is controversial and understudied with no known published data on NF-kB (p65) among breast cancer patients in Ghana and other African countries. This study assessed the prognostic significance of NF-kB (p65) expression and its association with various clinicopathological features in breast cancer patients. Ninety formalin-fixed breast cancer tissues and 15 normal breast tissues were used to determine the expression of NF-kB (p65) using immunohistochemistry. We explored the correlation between expression of NF-kB (p65) and clinicopathological features. NF-kB (p65) was expressed in 86.7% of breast cancer tissues. There was a significant relationship between NF-kB (p65) expression and tumor grade, proliferation index (Ki67), and molecular subtype. High NF-kB (p65) expression in tumor grade 3 was about 10 times that of grade 1 (54.2% vs. 5.1%), and Ki67 > 20 was 79.7% compared to 20.3% for Ki67 ≤ 20. Patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) had 49.1% overexpression of NF-kB (p65) compared to 17%, 25.4%, and 8.5% for luminal A, luminal B, and HER2 cases, respectively. This study demonstrates that NF-kB (p65) was highly expressed among breast cancer patients at Cape Coast Teaching Hospital, Ghana, especially in TNBC. NF-kB (p65) could serve as a biomarker for cancer stage, progression, prognosis and as a therapeutic target.

Keywords: Breast cancer; Ki67; NF-kB (p65); Tumor grade.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

This study received funding from Directorate of Research, Innovation, and Consultancy (RSG/GRP/CoHAS/2022/104), University of Cape Coast and Samuel and Emelia Brew-Butler/School of Graduate Studies research grant, University of Cape Coast.