Immunohistochemical detection of estrogen receptors in paraffin sections from primary and metastatic breast cancer.
With the availability of monoclonal antibodies against the estrogen receptor (ER) it is possible to demonstrate the presence of ER immunohistochemically. Some of the antibodies are claimed to be reactive in formalin fixed, paraffin embedded tissue. We have evaluated the reactivity of one of these antibodies, D75 and found an acceptable reaction in routinely formalin fixed, paraffin embedded tissue. The antibody was applied to both primary and secondary tumors from a group of patients with recurrent breast cancer. The metastatic lesions consisted of lymph node metastases, bone marrow metastases, and liver metastases. While 41% of the primary tumors were ER-positive, this was only the case with 35%, 20%, and 17% of the lymph node, bone marrow, and liver metastases, respectively. The discordance between the ER-status of the primary tumor and the distant metastasis was 41% in cases of bone marrow metastases, and 44% in liver metastases. In most cases the shift was from an ER-positive primary tumor to an ER-negative metastasis. The results support the hypothesis that ER-negative tumor cells are probably more aggressive with a larger metastatic potential than the higher differentiated, ER-positive tumor cells.
Brunn Rasmussen
B
B
Dept. of Pathology, Rigshospitalet, Denmark.
Kamby
C
C
D001859:Bone Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000556:secondary / Q000648:ultrastructure; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000556:secondary* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis / Q000473:pathology; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen / Q000378:metabolism*; D012008:Recurrence
D011960:Receptors, Estrogen