Oleksandr Mushii

Conference 2023 Presentation

 

Project title

Collagen extracellular matrix quantitative parameters in benign and malignant breast cancer neoplasms.

 

Authors and Affiliations

Oleksandr Mushii1, Taras Zadvornyi1, Nataliia Lukianova1, Vasyl Chekhun1

R.E. Kavetsky Institute of Experimental Pathology, Oncology and Radiobiology, NAS of Ukraine,
Kyiv, Ukraine

 

Abstract

Background

Nowadays, changes in the ratio and spatial structure of collagen are considered to be the key diagnostic and prognostic factors associated with the occurrence and progression of many malignant neoplasms, including breast cancer (BCa). Tumor growth, invasion, and metastasis spreading are all directly related to collagen fibers characteristics. Hence, proper measuring of the extracellular matrix quantitative parameters is crucial for a better understanding of their role in cancer progression.

Methods

The study was performed on tumor tissue samples: 20 patients with breast fibroadenoma (FA) and 20 patients with stage I-II BCa who were treated at the Kyiv Clinical Oncology Center during 2013-2015. The identification of collagen in the tissue of breast neoplasms was carried out by histochemical method according to Mallory. Morphometric studies were performed using the software CurveAlign v. 4.0. beta and ImageJ. Statistical analysis of the results was performed using the GraphPad Prism v.8.0 program (GraphPad Software Inc., USA). Accordingly to our results, bioinformatical analysis of different fibrillar collagen types expression was performed on the UALCAN database (The University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA).

Results

It has been shown that collagen fibers in BCa tissue are characterized by significantly lower values of length (p<0.001) and width (p<0.001), as well as better indicators of straightness (p<0.001) and orientation (p<0.05) in comparison with similar ones in FA. No significant difference was found in the density of collagen fibers in the tissue of benign and malignant neoplasms of the mammary gland.

Conclusions

Obtained results indicate the possibility of using the developed algorithm for the verification of quantitative parameters of collagen in histological samples of benign and malignant neoplasms of the mammary gland. Using these parameters as markers of malignant transformations could allow obtaining informational attributes for the improvement of diagnosis, and prognosis of breast cancer.