title: Assessing estrogen and progesterone receptor status in fine needle aspirates from breast carcinomas. Results on six years of material and correlation with biochemical assay.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the usefulness of immunocytochemical staining on breast fine needle aspiration (FNA) cytology as a routine procedure for determination of estrogen (ER) and progesterone (PR) receptor status.
  
  
  METHODS
  FNA cytology material from 864 patients was immunostained for ER and PR using Abbott ER/PR-ICA kits. Percentage of stained nuclei, staining intensity and staining pattern was evaluated. In 259 cases comparison with biochemical assay was possible.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the cases, 75.6% were ER positive and 65% PR positive, and 61.6% were both ER and PR positive. Approximately 4% of the smears were inconclusive because of scant cellularity. Concordance between the immunostaining and biochemical method was 84% for ER and 71% for PR. Kappa values were 0.61 and 0.4, respectively. Major discrepancies were found in 7.7% of the specimens.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Inconclusive smears due to scant cellularity is a minor problem. Technical difficulties are few, and false negative and positive staining is rarely seen. The results are comparable to those from the biochemical method, and immunostaining of ER/PR on breast cancer FNA cytology smears is useful as a routine procedure for receptor determination.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Ullevaal University Hospital, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sauer
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Beraki
authors.forename: P W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Jebsen
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Amlie
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Harbitz
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kåresen
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Naess
mesh_terms: D001707:Biopsy, Needle; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen / Q000378:metabolism*; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D011960:Receptors, Estrogen; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone