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©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Forkhead box P3 and indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase co-expression in Pakistani triple negative breast cancer patients
Kashif Asghar, Asif Loya, Iftikhar Ali Rana, Muhammad Abu Bakar, Asim Farooq, Muhammad Tahseen, Muhammad Ishaq, Iqra Masood, Muhammad Usman Rashid
Kashif Asghar, Muhammad Usman Rashid, Department of Basic Science Research, Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, Lahore, Punjab 54000, Pakistan
Asif Loya, Iftikhar Ali Rana, Muhammad Tahseen, Muhammad Ishaq, Department of Pathology, Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, Lahore, Punjab 54000, Pakistan
Muhammad Abu Bakar, Department of Cancer Registry and Clinical Data Management, Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, Lahore, Punjab 54000, Pakistan
Asim Farooq, Iqra Masood, Department of Clinical Research, Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, Lahore, Punjab 54000, Pakistan
Author contributions: Asghar K generated the hypotheses, designed experiments, carried out lab work and data analysis, and wrote the manuscript; Loya A evaluated the IHC slides and scored them, analyzed the data, and contributed to manuscript writing; Rana IA evaluated the IHC slides and scored them; Bakar MA and Farooq A conducted statistical analysis, analyzed data, and participated in writing the manuscript; Tahseen M and Ishaq M retrieved the blocks and performed IHC; Masood I performed patient data collection and verification from the electronic hospital information system and contributed to manuscript writing; Rashid MU assisted in hypothesis generation and critical appraisal of data.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre Institutional Review Board.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors declare no conflict of interests for this manuscript.
Data sharing statement: Technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset available from the corresponding author at kashifasghar@skm.org.pk. Consent was not obtained but the presented data are anonymized and risk of identification is low. No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See:
http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Corresponding author: Kashif Asghar, DVM, PhD, Research Scientist, Department of Basic Science Research, Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, 7A, Block R3, Johar Town, Lahore, Punjab 54000, Pakistan. drkashifasghar@gmail.com
Received: April 13, 2020
Peer-review started: April 13, 2020
First decision: August 9, 2020
Revised: August 24, 2020
Accepted: October 27, 2020
Article in press: October 27, 2020
Published online: December 24, 2020
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background
Forkhead box P3 (FOXP3) and indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) are associated with advanced disease in cancer (e.g., breast cancer).
Research motivation
To quantify FOXP3 expression in relation with IDO expression in patients diagnosed with breast cancer from Pakistan.
Research objectives
Our objective was to identify the co-expression of FOXP3 and IDO in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients.
Research methods
Immunohistochemistry was performed to analyze the expression of FOXP3, IDO, estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and human epidermal growth factor receptor in human breast cancer tissues.
Research results
A significant association of FOXP3 and IDO co-expression was observed among patients with TNBC (P = 0.01).
Research conclusions
FOXP3 positive cells might be associated with high expression of IDO in TNBC patients.
Research perspectives
Evaluation of FOXP3 and IDO expression in TNBC patients may be implemented in the future as a therapeutic strategy.
