English

Abstract

BACKGROUND Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide and has surpassed cervical cancer in India. As a result of regular mammography screening programs and public awareness, early-stage breast cancer with better prognosis has occurred. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) is now a common practice in tumour evaluation which are of importance in diagnosis as well as for deciding the treatment and of prediction of prognosis in breast cancer. The present study was undertaken in view of correlating the histopathology of the tumour and IHC profile with respect to oestrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and HER2 / neu. METHODS The study is a cross-sectional prospective analysis of patients with primary carcinoma of breast who are undergoing surgery over a period of 2 years from September 2017 to August 2019. All specimens were processed and stained with haematoxylin and eosin and immunohistochemistry was done for oestrogen and progesterone receptors and HER 2neu. RESULTS A total of 20 cases of breast carcinoma specimens were studied, whose age ranged from 24 - 72 years of age. All the 20 cases occurred in females. Infiltrating duct carcinoma was the most histological subtype noted in this study comprising 85 % (17 / 20) of cases. In the study 50 % (10/20) of the cases showed ER / PR positivity with negative HER2 / neu while 15 % (3/15) of cases were negative for ER / PR and HER2 / neu and only one case showed positivity for all three markers. 10 cases (50 %) had lymph node metastases in this study. CONCLUSIONS Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed malignancy in Indian women and is also the leading cause of cancer death in women worldwide. Assessment of receptor (ER, PR and HER – 2 / neu) status along with histopathological grading and staging will guide the clinicians to impart a correct treatment protocols to the patients. It will also be of great help in assessing the prognosis. KEYWORDS Breast Cancer, Histopathology, Immunohistochemistry