title: Detection of estrogen receptors with monoclonal antibodies in routinely processed formalin-fixed paraffin sections of breast carcinoma. Use of DNase pretreatment to enhance sensitivity of the reaction.
abstract: This study describes an improved immunohistochemical method for the sensitive and specific identification of estrogen receptors (ERs) in paraffin sections from formalin-fixed and routinely processed breast carcinoma tissues, using DNase pretreatment to expose nuclear antigenic sites and commercially available immunoreagents (including monoclonal antibody) in kit form. Results were compared with dextran-coated charcoal cytosolic assay (DCC) and with conventional immunohistochemistry on frozen sections. Sensitivity and specificity for determinations on paraffin sections were 88% and 86%, respectively, and statistical analysis showed very good agreement between DCC and paraffin sections (kappa = 0.805). The DNase technic on paraffin sections allows excellent correlation between histologic characteristics and ER status and reduces DCC sampling error resulting from stromal dilution and tumor variability. This method offers a reliable and reproducible alternative when tissue is not suitable or unavailable for DCC or frozen tissue analysis and can be used for retrospective studies on stored tissue blocks.
mesh_terms: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000032:analysis*; D003851:Deoxyribonucleases / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D005404:Fixatives; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D010232:Paraffin; D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D005404:Fixatives; D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen; D010232:Paraffin; D003851:Deoxyribonucleases