Title:The Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition Pathway in Two Cases with Gastric Metastasis Originating from Breast Carcinoma, One with a Metachronous Primary Gastric Cancer
Volume: 13
Issue: 1
Author(s): Simona Gurzu*, Laura Banias*, Tivadar Bara, Feher I, Tivadar Jr. Bara and Ioan Jung
Affiliation:
- Department of Pathology, Clinical County Emergency Hospital, Tirgu-Mures,Romania
- Department of Pathology, Clinical County Emergency Hospital, Tirgu-Mures,Romania
Keywords:
Breast, carcinoma, ductal carcinoma, lobular carcinoma, maspin, metachronous metastasis, stomach.
Abstract: Background: Metastases to the stomach are extremely rare and the metastatic pathway is not
well understood.
Objective: To present two unusual gastric metastases and a review of the literature regarding the pathway
of Epithelial Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) in the metastatic cells.
Method: The clinicopathological aspects of the two cases were presented in the light of the most recent
patents. Data about patents were obtained from the online databases PubMed, World Intellectual Property
Organization (WIPO) and Google patents.
Results: In the first case, in a 73-year-old female, total gastrectomy was performed for a Gastric Cancer
(GC) that was proved to be, based on the immunohistochemical features (positivity for mammaglobin
and estrogen receptor and negativity for E-cadherin, β-catenin, CD44 and maspin), a metastasis from
an invasive lobular carcinoma of the breast, that was later confirmed. In the second case, a 67-year-old
female with invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast, which benefited from chemotherapy and mastectomy,
presented a metachronous gastric adenocarcinoma with collision-type metastatic breast ductal
carcinoma. The aggressiveness of the GC cells was induced through the E-cadherin/maspin pathway,
while the CD44-related stem-like properties of the tumor cells induced the aggressiveness of ductal
carcinoma.
Conclusion: In females with breast cancer, a possible metastasis in the stomach should be taken into
account. Maspin and VSIG1 are not involved in breast cancer histogenesis. The Wnt/β-catenin signaling
is not involved in the lobular carcinoma progression. The CD44/HER2 positivity in ductal carcinoma
cells might indicate high risk of distant metastasis and low response to chemotherapy.
