Basal-like carcinoma

The basal-like carcinoma is a recently proposed subtype of breast cancer defined by its gene expression and protein expression profile.^[1] In the current WHO breast tumor classification, these tumors are classified as ductal carcinoma. They are high grade, "triple-negative" tumors, i.e. they express no estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor or Her2/neu proteins.

Basal-like carcinomas tend to be more aggressive, with a poor prognosis. In the U.S., they are more frequent among black women, which may explain the higher breast cancer mortality rate in this group.

References

1. Phenotypic evaluation of the basal-like subtype of invasive breast carcinoma, Modern Pathology 19:264-271 (2006), via www.nature.com