Over-expression of c-erbB-2 correlates with nuclear morphometry and prognosis in breast carcinoma in Asian women.
OBJECTIVE
We aimed to investigate the immunohistochemical expression of c-erbB-2 in invasive breast carcinoma in Asian women and its correlations with clinicopathological parameters and nuclear morphometry. Patients were followed up for disease relapse and overall survival, and the data were reviewed in conjunction with c-erbB-2 over-expression.


METHODS
Paraffin sections from 321 invasive breast cancers were immunohistochemically stained with anti-human c-erbB-2 antibody using the streptavidin-biotin technique.


RESULTS
c-erbB-2 was over-expressed in 110 (34.3%) cases, with an inverse correlation with oestrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) status (p=0.0001) and a positive correlation with histological grade (p=0.017). Nuclear morphometry in 96 cases revealed rounder nuclei in c-erbB-2 negative tumours (p=0.0322) when compared with c-erbB-2 positive tumours. Among c-erbB-2 positive cases, malignant cells of histological grade 3 tumours revealed larger nuclear area and perimeter than grade 1 and 2 cases (p=0.0095, p=0.03, respectively) while increasing tumour size correlated with greater nuclear perimeter (p=0.046). c-erbB-2 positivity was significantly associated with poor survival when all patients were included in the analysis (p=0.0166) and for subsets of node positive, histological grade 1 and 2, and ER positive tumours, and in women aged over 50 years (p=0.0047, p=0.0367, p=0.0092, p=0.0096, respectively).


CONCLUSIONS
c-erbB-2 was independently prognostic when histological grade, nodal and ER status were considered. Our results show that c-erbB-2 over-expression correlates with poor histological grade and negative ER/PR status, and predicts poor overall survival in Asian women with breast cancer.
Selvarajan
Sathiyamoorthy
S
Department of Pathology, Singapore General Hospital.
Wong
Ka Yan
KY
Khoo
Kei Siong
KS
Bay
Boon Huat
BH
Tan
Puay Hoon
PH
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D044466:Asian People / Q000235:genetics*; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology / Q000378:metabolism*; D018270:Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000378:metabolism*; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D016019:Survival Analysis
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone