title: Expression of epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase family in fine needle aspiration and permanent specimens of invasive lobular and ductal breast cancers.
abstract: Recently, the role of HER-2/Neu gene amplification has been enthusiastically investigated in breast cancer. Determining the HER-2/Neu status could be achieved by evaluating either histologic samples or cytologic specimens obtained by Fine Needle Aspiration (FNA). This study aimed at determining the concordance of HER-2/Neu expression in FNA and histologic sections. FNA samples, as well as their corresponding histologic sections of 90 cases with breast cancer were evaluated in Tabriz Sina Teaching Center in a 13-month period of time. The immunohistochemistry was employed for determining the HER-2/Neu amplification for both methods. The concordance rate and agreement were determined between the two methods. Ninety specimens of women with a mean age of 50.93 +/- 10.64 (29-84) years were assessed. There were 84 cases with invasive ductal carcinoma and 6 cases with invasive lobular carcinoma. Lymph nodes were involved in 50 cases and there were vascular and neural involvement in 40 and 35 cases, respectively. Her-2/Neu was not detected in 27 cases (30%) with weak and strong amplifications in 47 (52.2%) and 16 (17.8%) cases of FNA specimens, respectively. Her-2/Neu was not detected in 29 cases (32.2%) with weak and strong amplifications in 42 (46.7%) and 19 (21.1%) cases of histologic specimens, respectively. The concordance rate was 70% between the two methods. The agree ment was statistically significant between the two methods, as well (kappa = 0.51, p < 0.001). HER-2/neu gene amplification can be reliably estimated by immunohistochemistry on breast cancer FNAs and a good correlation has been found between this and results on histological sections.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Imam Reza Hospital, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Halimi
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Aghbali
authors.forename: Al D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Tabrizi
authors.forename: E O'lad
authors.initials: EO
authors.lastname: Sahebmadarek
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D044963:Biopsy, Fine-Needle / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D018270:Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000473:pathology*; D018275:Carcinoma, Lobular / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000473:pathology*; D005188:False Negative Reactions; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D005260:Female; D006651:Histocytochemistry / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran; D008875:Middle Aged; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; C508053:ERBB2 protein, human