Immunohistochemical demonstration of c-erb B-2 oncoprotein expression in female breast cancer and its prognostic significance.
The expression of c-erb B-2 oncoprotein was studied immunohistochemically in paraffin embedded biopsy specimens of 91 female breast carcinomas. The mean (+/- SD) age of the patients at diagnosis was 59.0 (+/- 13.2) years and they were prospectively followed-up for a mean of 12.4 years (range 11.5-13.3 years). The c-erb B-2 expression was analysed in relation to clinical stage, menopausal status, histological grade, tubular growth pattern, irregularity of nuclei, DNA ploidy and clinical outcome during the follow-up. Grade III tumours showed higher c-erb B-2 expression than low grade tumours and the c-erb B-2 expression than low grade tumours and the c-erb B-2 positivity was also related to the irregularity of the nuclei (p = 0.0815). Crude survival (p = 0.0635) and breast cancer survival (p = 0.072) could be predicted by c-erb B-2 expression, in that the c-erb B-2 negative tumours survived longer. The prediction of crude survival (p = 0.03), breast cancer survival (p = 0.04) and disease-free survival (p = 0.037) was more reliable in postmenopausal women. The results suggest that c-erb B-2 oncogene expression can be used as a prognostic parameter in predicting the biological behaviour of female breast cancer.
Department of Pathology, University of Kuopio, Finland.
A
A
Tervahauta
M
M
Eskelinen
S
S
Syrjänen
P
P
Lipponen
P
P
Pajarinen
K
K
Syrjänen
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D011379:Prognosis; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000032:analysis*; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases