Immunohistochemical Profile of Breast Cancer Patients at a Tertiary Care Hospital in South India

Aims: 1) To evaluate the estrogen receptor(ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and Her-2 /neu expression ininvasive breast carcinomas by immunohistochemistry and 2) to compare the pattern of expression with clinicopathologicalparameters like patient’s age, tumor size, mitotic index, histological type and grade and lymph nodemetastasis.
Methods: This is a retrospective study of 321 female invasive breast carcinomas diagnosed in theDepartment 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 wereT2 (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 cancersconstituted 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 expressionappears to be lower in the Indian population compared to the West. A significant proportion of tumors in ourstudy with Her2/neu overexpression also showed ER and PR positivity. Triple-negative breast tumors were mostcommonly grade 3, in women aged more than 50 years.