Nuclear and flow cytometric characteristics associated with overexpression of the c-erbB-2 oncoprotein in breast carcinoma.
The overexpression of the c-erbB-2 oncoprotein is now thought by most authors to be associated with adverse prognosis in breast carcinoma. In this study, we investigate the relationship between overexpression of the c-erbB-2 oncoprotein and nuclear size by morphometry in a series of 150 human breast carcinomas, comprising 65 cases of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) and 85 cases of invasive adenocarcinoma. The mean nuclear size for c-erbB-2 positive cases of DCIS was 54.8 micron 2 and invasive carcinoma was 52.1 micron 2 respectively, in contrast with 41.6 micron 2 and 42.5 micron 2 for c-erbB-2 negative cases of DCIS and invasive carcinoma respectively. Flow cytometric examination of DNA in a subset of 91 of these tumours showed no association between tumour cell aneuploidy and c-erbB-2 overexpression. S-phase fraction could be calculated on 20 cases of DCIS and 48 invasive carcinomas. There was a strong association between c-erbB-2 overexpression, S-phase fraction (p less than 0.001) and proliferative index (p less than 0.001) in 20 cases of DCIS. A weak association of S-phase fraction and c-erbB-2 overexpression was seen in 48 invasive carcinomas (p = 0.047). This study confirms the subjective impression that there is a relationship between large tumour cell nuclear size and an overexpression of the c-erbB-2 oncoprotein, and also shows an association with increased tumour cell proliferation.
Department of Histopathology, City Hospital, Nottingham, UK.
D N
DN
Poller
M
M
Galea
D
D
Pearson
J
J
Bell
W J
WJ
Gullick
C W
CW
Elston
R W
RW
Blamey
I O
IO
Ellis
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000473:pathology; D000782:Aneuploidy; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000473:pathology; D002285:Carcinoma, Intraductal, Noninfiltrating / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000473:pathology; D002455:Cell Division; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000648:ultrastructure; D004273:DNA, Neoplasm / Q000032:analysis; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000032:analysis*; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000032:analysis*; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; D016196:S Phase
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D004273:DNA, Neoplasm; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases