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Project

Characterization of the stromal component in inflammatory breast cancer.

This project will be centred on a large, considering the rare nature of IBC, database of more than 200 IBC patients diagnosed in GZA Sint-Augustinus, Antwerp; Antwerp University Hospital, Antwerp and Institut Paoli Calmettes, Marseile since 1997. We have access to detailed clinical data, up to date survival information and affymetrix gene expression profiles. Besides we also have large numbers of nIBC patients in these centra and due to the large IBC database subtype specific- and matched research will be possible. Although there is only an international consensus on IBC diagnosis since 2011, these 3 research institutions have always used the same clinical and pathological criteria to diagnose IBC. Because this is an innovative study, many of the immune parameters have never been looked at in IBC. Therefore it is impossible to do a power-analysis for the whole study. However, if we look at the proportions of different types of immune cells in nIBC  and at our preliminary analysis that showed an enrichment for TAM and activated B-cells we should be able to show proportional changes since the absolute number of TILs in IBC and nIBC are probably the same. We calculated that with a sample size of +/- 200 patients in each group we will have 80% power to detect a difference between proportions of at least 10% for TAM (e.g. IBC: 15% vs nIBC: 5%), and 12% for B-cells (e.g. IBC: 32% vs nIBC: 20%), using a two group chi-square test with a 0.05 two-sided significance level.
Date:15 Jan 2016 →  14 Jan 2017
Keywords:BREAST CANCER
Disciplines:Morphological sciences, Oncology