Aberrant expression of E-cadherin in infiltrating ductal and lobular breast carcinomas and its correlation with clinicopathological parameters – A hospital-based study

Shruthi T,Dr Naresh Jaikumar Kulkarni,Dr Ramesh Chavan

doi:10.17511/jopm.2021.i03.02

Abstract

Introduction: Breast carcinoma is one of the commonest malignant tumours in women, leading topremature deaths and morbidity. E-cadherin is a 120kDa calcium-dependent transmembraneglycoprotein encoded by the CDH1 gene located on chromosome 16q21 and is expressed in mostepithelial cells. Loss of E Cadherin expression implies cell discohesion and favours metastasis.Materials and Methods: A total of 30 cases of breast carcinomas were studied, over two years.Histological grade and type were assessed by staining the paraffin-embedded sections with H & E.Using IHC technique, E-cadherin antigen was retrieved by Heat-Induced Epitome Retrieval method,and immunostaining was scored semiquantitatively. Cases were grouped as ‘preserved,’ whenpositivity was strong membranous, and occurred in more than 75% of the neoplastic epithelial cellsand ‘aberrant’ in all the remaining cases. Results: E-cadherin was found to be preserved in 46.7%of all the breast carcinomas and aberrant in 51.7% of invasive ductal carcinomas (IDC) alone, while100% of invasive lobular carcinomas showed aberrant expression. No significant correlation wasfound with E-cadherin grading and histological type of carcinoma, histopathological grade orinvolvement of deep surgical margin. Conclusion: Differentiation between invasive ductal andinvasive lobular carcinoma based on the loss of E-cadherin has to be done cautiously given itsaberrant expression in ductal carcinomas as well.

Highlights

Breast carcinoma is one of the commonest malignant tumours in women, leading to premature deaths and morbidity
29 cases (97%) were women and one case (3%) was a 67-year-old man. 24 patients (80%) presented with breast lump alone, followed by breast lump associated with nipple retraction in 3 patients (10%), breast lump with nipple discharge in 2 patients (6.7%) and only one patient (3.3%) had breast lump associated with pain
No correlation has been found with E-cadherin expression and histological type of carcinoma, or histopathological grade, necrosis, calcification, lymphovascular invasion and lymph node status

Summary

Introduction

Breast carcinoma is one of the commonest malignant tumours in women, leading to premature deaths and morbidity. Breast carcinomas are the most common of the malignant tumours and the leading cause of cancerrelated death in women with more than one lakh cases occurring worldwide annually [1]. It accounts for 25-32 percent of all cancers in women in India and 12.5 percent worldwide[2]. The grading of breast cancer was first suggested in 1957 by Bloom and Richardson which was based mainly on architectural features It was modified by Nottingham and the grade is obtained by adding up the score for the tubule formation, nuclear pleomorphism, mitotic count.. It predicts prognosis and helps to distinguish groups of patients suitable for different forms of therapy[13]

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