Comparative analysis of various biochemical and immunohistochemical methods for evaluating hormone receptors in breast carcinoma

Abstract

The aim of this study was to compare the grade of concordance between three methods to evaluate and to quantify the expression of estrogen and progesterone receptors in 180 cases of breast cancer. The methods compared were dextran-coated charcoal (DCC) method, immunochemical analysis (ICA), and immunohistochemistry (IHC). The grades of concordance are so summarized: (1) 77.8% for estrogen receptors (ER) and progesterone receptors (PgR) with DCC and ICA methods (r = 0.53 and r = 0.64, respectively); (2) 83.3% for ER (r = 0.53) and 75.6% for PgR (r = 0.64) with DCC and IHC methods; (3) 87.8% for ER (r = 0.98) and 86.7% for PgR (r = 0.99) with ICA and IHC methods. Nowadays, the technique carried out on tissue sections provides the most reliable information. The IHC method performed on formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tissue is preferred in laboratories with a high work load because it is easy and inexpensive and can be automated.