Immunohistochemical Biomarkers in Ductal Carcinoma In Situ ()
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Breast ductal carcinoma In Situ (DCIS) can be defined as a malignant epithelial proliferation with growth limited by the basal membrane of the ductal epithelium, with no evidence of stromal invasion. There has been a trend of trying to subcategorize DCIS based on cell proliferation assays (Ki67) and the expression of hormone receptors and the human epidermal growth receptor (HER-2) as detected by immunohistochemistry, similar to invasive breast carcinomas (IBC). The aims were to evaluate the expression of breast cancer marker proteins in DCIS by immunohistochemistry to better categorize it. Methods: 46 biopsies from women with DCIS and IBC Luminal A-like were evaluated by immunohistochemistry staining of proteins already known to be biomarkers in IBC. For controls, normal breast tissue from mammoplasty (n = 3) was used. Results: Our results showed an increase of estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) expression relative to that in normal tissue samples (p < 0.0001). No differences in steroid hormone expression patterns were seen between DCIS and IBC tumors (p = 0.3145; p = 0.7341, respectively). The proliferation levels of the DCIS and IBC samples were similar as evaluated by the Ki67 labeling index. Only 12.90% of samples showed amplification of HER-2. Conclusion: The biology of DCIS is not well understood given the complexity and heterogeneity of the disease, which makes it important to better sub-categorize this tumor, especially considering the possibility of identifying DCIS cases with the potential for recurrence and evolution into IBC.
Share and Cite:
Petrone, I. , Rodrigues, F. , Fernandes, P. and Abdelhay, E. (2020) Immunohistochemical Biomarkers in Ductal Carcinoma
In Situ.
Open Journal of Pathology,
10, 129-146. doi:
10.4236/ojpathology.2020.104013.