Background: Breast cancer is a malignant tumor that untreated early leads to death. Its management in Côte d'Ivoire does not include the assessment of the expression profile of breast cancer related genes due to its high cost. The objective of the current study was to determine the expression profiles of the Breast Cancer genes 1 and 2, two tumor suppressing genes, in patients with breast cancer in the Gbêkê region of Côte d'Ivoire.

Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out over a period of 16 months from September 2023 to January 2025. The patients came from five screening and management sites for breast diseases in the Gbêkê region. Breast micro-biopsies were stored in a RNA Protect solution at -80°C before processing. RNA extraction was performed with RNAEsy/Triazol kit from Qiagen. And RT-qPCR was carried out using specific primers and probes for BRCA1 and 2 mRNAs.

Results: Fifty eight participants were recruited. Among which them, 43 had breast carcinoma and 15 had various nonmalignant breast tumors. The average age of the participants was 42.9 ± 10.1 with ages ranging from 24 to 71 years. Multiparous women accounted for 62.8% of the cases. These women were mostly unemployed and/or not civil servants in 93% of the cases. Out of them, 9.3% used hormonal contraceptives, and 72.1% were premenopausal. Non-specificinfiltrating carcinoma represented 95.3% of the carcinoma cases. And the Nottingham grade II was the most frequent (74.4%) among them. The BRCA1 gene was expressed in 25.6% of carcinoma patients and 20.0% of the non-malignant participants. And its expression levels were low in both groups. The BRCA2 gene was expressed in 62.8% of carcinoma cases and 66.7% of the non-malignant cases. And its expression levels were high in both groups.

Conclusion: Breast cancer is frequent in the Gbêkê region. It mostly affects premenopausal women with poor socioeconomic background. BRCA 1 and 2 expression seemed. It would therefore be wise to integrate the expression profile of BRCA1 and BRCA2 in all women from adolescence for rigorous monitoring of the disease.