Immunohistochemical and morphological study of malignant breast tumors at a tertiary care hospital

Carcinoma of breast is a common malignancy in Indian women. Identification of estrogen and progesterone receptors on tumor cells play an important role in management and prognosis of breast carcinoma. A cohort study was done and receptor status was evaluated by immunohistochemistry. Invasive ductal carcinoma was the most common histological subtype. Receptor expression was maximum in Grade I (66%) and minimum 0% in Grade III. On correlation analysis (Figure 1), there was a significant correlation of ER expression with tumor grade at 0.05 level (Pearson's correlation coefficient, R2= 0.402). However, the tumor grade did not correlate significantly, (Figure 2 &3) with PR and HER 2 receptor expression (P=0.3 and 0.1, respectively) despite being a positive correlation. A positive correlation was seen (Pearson's correlation coefficient, R2= 0.05 and 0.20) between Age, ER and HER2, respectively. However, an inverse correlation was observed between PR and age (R2=-0.10). ER and PR positively correlated with each other (R2=0.354); however, PR negatively correlated with HER2 (R2=-0.053). positive correlation between ER and PR accompanied by in-verse correlation of them with HER-2/neu. In addition, we found significant correlation between ER and PR positive status and low-grade tumors. These findings showed the importance of these biomarkers because they provide valuable prognostic information for best therapeutic decision.