Indications and pitfalls of immunohistochemistry in head and neck cancer

Décio De Natale Caly,Acklei Viana,Abrão Rapoport,Rogério Aparecido Dedivitis,Otávio Alberto Curioni,Cláudio Roberto Cernea,Lenine Garcia Brandão

doi:10.5935/1808-8694.20130013

Abstract

Immunohistochemistry (IHC) has been employed in the differential diagnosis of tumors. ObjectiveTo assess the use of IHC in cases of head and neck tumor. MethodThis is a retrospective study of the cases included in the Cancer Registry of the institution. ResultsIHC was used in 76 (11%) of 704 pathology tests. Most cases were carcinomas (85.80%), and 83.66% of them were squamous cell carcinomas. All tests were done with diagnostic purposes. The most frequently used antibodies were 34BE12 (37.18%), AE1/AE3 (35.9%), 35BH11 (28.21%), CD45 (25.64%), CD20 (24.36%), CD30 (24.36%), CK7 (23.08%) and CD3 (23.08%). ConclusionsIHC was used in 10.67% of the head and neck tumor cases submitted to pathology testing, mostly for carcinoma (5.26%). In the determination of squamous cell carcinoma, IHC accounted for 18.42% of all tumors.

Highlights

Macro and microscopic alterations lie in the basis of pathology diagnostics, and microscopic morphology plays a fundamental role in the interpretation of histogenesis, classification, and prognostic assessment of tumors
The study included cases processed by IHC protocols, considering the incidence rates of various tumor types - carcinomas, sarcomas, and lymphomas - and utilized panels
Considering the split of tumor types, carcinomas accounted for 94.69% of the cases, followed by lymphomas (3.84%)

Summary

Introduction

Macro and microscopic alterations lie in the basis of pathology diagnostics, and microscopic morphology plays a fundamental role in the interpretation of histogenesis, classification, and prognostic assessment of tumors. In the 1970s more elaborate techniques gained significant ground in aiding in the diagnosis of cases in which the assessment produced from the use of the usual histochemical stains was not conclusive. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) protocols were developed in this setting, using antibodies tagged with chromogens to identify specific markers. In these protocols, antigenantibody reactions using non-fluorescent chromogens are analyzed in an optical microscope. IHC is performed in paraffin-embedded specimens sliced on a microtome and submitted to treatments for antigen retrieval, processed with immunoperoxidase and development reagents[1,2]. The ease of handling paraffin-embedded specimens has granted significant popularity to IHC in pathology labs

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Conclusion