Immunohistochemical profile of breast cancer patients at a tertiary care hospital in South India

Abstract

Aims: 1) To evaluate the estrogen receptor(ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and Her-2 /neu expression in invasive breast carcinomas by immunohistochemistry and 2) to compare the pattern of expression with clinico-pathological parameters like patient's age, tumor size, mitotic index, histological type and grade and lymph node metastasis.

Methods: This is a retrospective study of 321 female invasive breast carcinomas diagnosed in the Department of Histopathology, Apollo Speciality Hospital, Chennai from January 2009 to June 2010.

Results: The age of the patients ranged from 24 to 99 years, with a mean of 53.8, and the majority of the tumors were T2 (83.8% in range of 2-5 cms), predominantly histological grade 2 (57.3%), followed by grade 3 (33.3%). ER, PR and Her-2/neu expression was seen in 59, 51 and 27% of cases respectively. Triple-negative breast cancers constituted 25 % of our cases. We also found characteristic associations between hormonal receptor and Her-2/neu expression and various clinico-pathological parameters.

Conclusions: The hormonal receptor expression appears to be lower in the Indian population compared to the West. A significant proportion of tumors in our study with Her2/neu overexpression also showed ER and PR positivity. Triple-negative breast tumors were most commonly grade 3, in women aged more than 50 years.