Immunohistochemical Expression of Estrogen And Progesterone Receptors in Neuroendocrine Breast Carcinomas | ||||
The Egyptian Journal of Hospital Medicine | ||||
Article 9, Volume 11, Issue 1, April 2003, Page 101-111 PDF (458.25 K) | ||||
Document Type: Original Article | ||||
DOI: 10.21608/ejhm.2003.18722 | ||||
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Authors | ||||
Naser M. anwer1; Ahmed H. Abdel-Rahman2; Ahmed S. Salem2; Abdel- Ghany Awad Essa3 | ||||
1Departments of Pathology, Al-Azhar University | ||||
2Al-Azhar University | ||||
3Departments of General Surgery, Al-Azhar University | ||||
Abstract | ||||
Neuroendocrine (NE) breast carcinomas are defined by the diffuse expression of NEmarkers. They may coexpress NE and non-NE substances such as glycoproteins and apocrine protein “divergent differentiation”. In the present study, twenty NE-breast carcinomas, expressing chromogranin A (CgA) and neurone specific enolase (NSE) were selected from a series of two hundreds retrospective breast carcinomas, in addition to ten normal breast tissue biopsies taken as control. The NE-tumors were graded into G1, G2 & G3 and were divided according to the mucin expression into group 1 (Mucinous NE-tumors) and group 2 (other variants that did not express mucin). Each group included 10 cases. Immunohistochemistry was applied to paraffin sections for investigating CgA & NSE expression as well as estrogen and progesterone receptors (ER & PR) status. Group 1 tumors fell within lower grades than those of group 2. Moreover, ER & PR positivity rates were 75% & 65% respectively. Also, ER expression was not significantly correlated with NE phenotype (P = 0.14) or with grade (P = 0.24) while PR expression was significantly higher in group 1 than in group 2 (P = 0.02) and in G1, G2 than G3 (P = 0.04) Both steroid receptors coexpression was significantly higher in group 1 than in group 2 tumors (P = 0.05) and found in G1 and G2 but not in G3 tumors. Finally, ER and PR were coexpressed, although fewer & sporadic, in all control biopsies (100%) compared to its presence only in 45% of the studied NE tumors. The study concluded that NE-breast tumors, producing high level of NE markers were specific entity and those coexpressing ER & PR might possess a multidirectional differentiation. Moreover, it may appear quite necessary to define estrogen & progesterone receptors status in NE breast carcinomas so as to decide, whether or not to try hormone therapy as adjuvant treatment modality in these tumors. | ||||
Keywords | ||||
Immunohistochemistry; Estrogen Receptors; Progesterone Receptors; Neuroendocrine; Breast carcinoma | ||||
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