Abstract B52: Pilot study: Random periareolar fine needle aspiration (RPFNA) accurately depicts biochemical phenotype displayed in breast tissues of high risk African American women
Authors: Sistrunk Christopher , Ambrose Adrian , Carter Amira , Seewaldt Victoria 
Published: October 2015

Background: There are more than 2.9 million breast cancer survivors in America today. However African American women have a 79% five-year survival while survival rates for European American women are at 92%. While early detection increases the survivability rates of most breast cancer, the standard mammogram fails to identify the earlier stages of some of the more aggressive types of breast cancer. Short-term breast cancer risks in women are increasingly being identified by Random Periareolar Fine Needle Aspiration (RPFNA). While the reproducibility of this technique is no longer the primary concern for its usage; RPFNA's small sample-sets and the inability to accurately correlate pathological and biochemical findings within the entire breast inhibits full acceptance of this technique. The purpose of this study was to determine if the utilization RPFNA accurately sampled the entire breast tissue.

Methods: In this pilot study 10 high risk African American women who were high risk for breast cancer (known or suspected BRCA1 mutation carriers) had breast tissues collect by RPFNA. These samples were laser captured and the RPFNA protein expression for wide array of biomarkers (stem cell, epithelial- mesenchymal transition (EMT), proliferation, apoptosis and senescence) were assessed utilizing reverse-phase protein microarray in mammary epithelial cells. The same 10 high risk African American women either underwent prophylactic mastectomies or had a mastectomy after cancer diagnosis. Mastectomy specimens were serial sliced into 2.5 centimeter slices and 2 to 3 cubic centimeter samples were excised from a specified section of each slice of breast tissue. On average 103 samples were collected from each breast and the same (RPFNA) biomarkers were analyzed.

Results: In this exploratory study, we have determined there are no significant differences between the expression of the biomarkers we have tested in RPFNA samples and the whole breast tissue sampling. Specifically we have tested for EMT markers (Vimentin and Snail), p53 and additional markers involved in proliferation and apoptosis.

Conclusions: This study shows that RPFNA is an accurate measure of mammary breast epithelial and this technique directly correlates to the measurements found throughout the entire breast tissues. RPFNA did not show any significant differences in the expression of specific biomarkers tested, suggesting that RPFNA samples could be utilized to develop more robust breast cancer risk profiles.

Citation Format: Christopher Sistrunk, Adrian Ambrose, Amira Carter, Victoria Seewaldt. Pilot study: Random periareolar fine needle aspiration (RPFNA) accurately depicts biochemical phenotype displayed in breast tissues of high risk African American women. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Seventh AACR Conference on The Science of Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; Nov 9-12, 2014; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2015;24(10 Suppl):Abstract nr B52.