ABSTRACT
Fourty nine cases of breast cancer were stained for laminin and fibronectin. These cases include 41 cases of invasive duct carcinoma [IDC], 6 cases of invasive lobular carcinoma [ILC], one intraduct carcinoma and one tubular carcinoma. Laminin loss was more frequently associated with poor tumour differentiation, being lost in 70.6% and 72 .7% of tumours of histologic grade II and III respectively as compared to 61.5% of tumors of grade I. Also laminin loss was associated with increased incidence of lymph node metastases. Lymph node metastases were present in 60% of laminin negative tumours compared to 38.5% of tumours with preserved although abnormal laminin. These findings point to a probable good prognostic value for laminin preservation in invasive breast cancer. However the presence of laminin in some cases of grade III with >/= 4 lymph node metastases open discussion about a possible role for laminin in promoting invasion and metastases in some cases of breast cancer. A scanty or absent fibronectin was found in the majority of ILC [5/6] in contrast to prominent diffuse stromal staining for fibronectin in 27 out of 41 cases of IDC. This difference in fibronectin staining may be related to the characteristic infiltrating pattern and different behaviour of lLC