Cytokeratin 5/6 expression in benign and malignant breast lesions.

Background: Cytokeratin s (CK) are used for the fingerprinting of carcinomas in general. In breast tissue, the luminal epithelial cells express CK 8/18, CK 7 and CK 19, while basal/myoepithelial cells express CK 5/6, CK 14 and CK 17. Material and Methods: Immunohistochemical staining for cytokeratin 5/6 was applied on cell block sections of 23 cases of benign and 25 cases of malignant breast lesions using avidin biotin peroxidase technique. The distribution and intensity of staining was recorded and graded semiquantitatively. Result: All benign lesions showed positive immunoreaction, with the staining index varying from 6-9, except lactating adenoma. The malignant lesions comprised three cases of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) and 22 cases of infiltrating ductal carcinoma, not otherwise specified, IDC (NOS). None of the DCIS cases showed a positive immunoreaction. Among the IDC (NOS) lesions, six cases of grade III breast carcinoma exhibited a positive immunohistochemical reaction, the staining index of which varied from 2-6. The staining reaction in the malignant lesions was only cytoplasmic and the intensity was significantly less than that of benign lesions. Conclusion: CK 5/6 expression breast carcinoma implies a 'basal like' molecular phenotype and is associated with poor prognosis. This antibody is also used as a component of panels to differentiate benign and malignant breast lesions.

Study of nucleolar organizer regions (NORs) in lesions of gallbladder.

Tissue sections from 100 specimens of gallbladder including 40 cases of chronic cholecystitis, 30 cases of epithelial hyperplasia and 30 cases of well, moderately and poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma of gallbladder were studied for argyrophillic nucleolar organizer regions (AgNORs). The arithmetic mean +/- S.D. were calculated for each category. This showed NOR counts of chronic cholecystitis--(1.89+/-0.96), epithelial hyperplasia--(3.99+/-1.03), well differentiated adenocarcinoma (WDCA)--(7.04+/-1.34), moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma (MDCA)--(7.52+/-0.97) and poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma (PDCA)--(8.37+/-1.27). The study revealed increasing number of AgNORS from cases of chronic cholecystitis to epithelial hyperplasia to carcinoma gallbladder, but a considerable overlap in AgNOR counts of individual cases was observed suggesting that though AgNOR count cannot act as a specific diagnostic parameter for diagnosis of early carcinoma & dysplasia in isolated cases, they may prove to be a good adjunct to presently available imaging techniques and cytology.

Myelolipoma of adrenal gland in association with occult malignancy--a case report.

Myelolipoma is an unusual lesion of adrenal gland in which ectopic marrow tissue is present. This case is being present because of its rarity.