Abstract:
The incidence of this early onset breast cancer in Uganda has tripled if compared to levels of 1961.Breast cancer in these women is peculiar in its progression and aggressiveness yet hardly an answer has been offered for those characteristics. The ray of hope has emerged through genomic studies of miRNAs in cancer bio-pathologic features. Breast cancer continues to torment and devastate women worldwide. Globally, breast cancer is a leading cause of cancer –related death. among the women population. Cancer of the breast exhibits an unusual aggressive growth pattern among the young population of sub Saharan Africans. Disparities in cancer characteristics are noted between high income and low middle income woman populations.
Carcinoma of the breast is normally a disease of women who have surpassed the reproductive period. However, a peculiar category occurs before the fifth decade of life, irrespective of ethnic, religious, social status, education nor geographical preponderance, termed early onset breast cancer.
Worldwide, studies in response to cancer risk heterogeneity have unveiled a new concept of Micro RNAs in the development of various cancers. MicroRNAs are tiny short single strands of non-coding RNA comprising 16 – 20 nucleotides in length. Expression of MicroRNAs often times manifest as excessive or under production hence termed dysregulation or aberrant expression. MicroRNAs though non protein forming in character (non-coding), possess an essential regulatory role over all protein-producing DNA mediated cellular processes.
There is paucity of knowledge on the prevalent dysregulated MicroRNAs, their impact on disease characteristics and survival of early onset breast cancer in Uganda. Therefore, the overall objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of profiling dysregulated miRNAs and describe the role of these small non coding RNAs in early onset breast cancer pathogenesis, bio-pathologic disease characterization and survival at sub Saharan Africa University Teaching Hospital.
