Immunohistochemical evaluation of hormone receptors with predictive value in mammary carcinomas

Vol. 52 No. 4, 2011

ROMANIAN JOURNAL of MORPHOLOGY and EMBRYOLOGY

D. M. Plesan, Milena Georgescu, Claudia Valentina Georgescu, Nicoleta Patrana, Teodora Nina, C. Plesan

Aim: Immunohistochemical evaluation of hormone receptors (ER, PR) and correlation of immunohistochemical and morpho-clinical data. Materials and Methods: The study was performed on paraffin-embedded and HE-stained tissues originating from 100 cases of invasive mammary carcinoma. Monoclonal antibodies, anti-estrogen and anti-progesterone receptors, were used for the immunohistochemical study. The detection system was EnVision HRP and the visualization system was 3,3'-diaminobenzidine tetrahydrochloride (DAB). The evaluation of the result was performed using the Allred score. Results: The majority of the studied cases (57%) expressed both types of hormone receptors and in 32% of the cases the hormone receptors were completely absent. The rest of the cases presented a heterogeneous phenotype: 7% presented the ER-/PR+ phenotype and 4% the ER+/PR- phenotype. Compared with the classical phenotype (ER+/PR-), ER+/PR- tumors were more frequent at patients over 50-year-old. The tumors with ER+/PR- were larger than the ER+/PR+ and they were of the invasive ductal carcinoma type with an Allred score for ER under 6. Conclusions: The predictive value is amplified when the ER status is correlated with the PR status because the heterogeneous phenotypes are identified, especially the ER+/PR- phenotype, which have an aggressive behavior and the lowest response to tamoxifen therapy.

Corresponding author: Dragos Mihai Plesan, resident MD, e-mail: dragosmax2000@yahoo.com

Download PDF
Download cover
Download contents

Journal archive