Tenascin pattern of expression and established prognostic factors in invasive breast carcinoma.
OBJECTIVE
Immunohistochemical methods were used to study Tenascin (TN) expression in invasive duct cell carcinoma (IDCC) of the breast and its established prognostic factors.


METHODS
We studied 115 patients with IDCC. The mean patient age was 62 years; all tumors were graded according to Scarf-Bloom and Richardson. Complete survival information was available for all patients (median follow-up 65 months). Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded archival tissue from all 115 IDCC were immunostained with monoclonal mouse Anti-Human Tenascin (DAKO-TN2M636; 1/50 dilution). Positivity was recorded on a scale of 0-4 for percentage of TN staining in the tumor stroma.


RESULTS
TN showed thick bands around advancing tumor nests and in poorly differentiated tumors, TN fibers had an interstitial pattern surrounding single tumor cells. TN score was significantly positively correlated with high nuclear grade (P < 0.05), histologic grade (P < 0.01), mitotic grade (P < 0.005), and combined grade (P < 0.01). TN score did not correlate with long-term survival or with other prognostic factors studied.


CONCLUSIONS
TN expression was more prominent in tumors with a high combined histologic grade. Our results may suggest that while TN may play a role in limiting tumor spread as proposed by other studies, it may not represent a prognostic factor in invasive breast carcinoma.
Iskaros
B F
BF
Department of Pathology, Montefiore Medical Center, and the Albert Einstein Cancer Center, Bronx, New York 10467, USA.
Hu
X
X
Sparano
J A
JA
Fineberg
S A
SA
D000818:Animals; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000473:pathology; D018270:Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000556:secondary; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D051379:Mice; D008875:Middle Aged; D016612:Paraffin Embedding; D011379:Prognosis; D019063:Tenascin / Q000378:metabolism*
D019063:Tenascin