Immunohistochemical localization of beta human chorionic gonadotrophin (beta-hCG) in breast carcinomas and its prognostic significance / 한국유방암학회지

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The early parity that reduces the risk of developing breast cancer indicates that hormonal conditions might play an important role in its prevention. Both pregnancy and hCG treatment are considered essential for the inhibiting breast cancer. The purpose of this study is to investigate the incidence of beta-hCG expression in breast cancer and to access its relationship with the other biologic parameters. METHODS: Three hundred and thirty-four cases of formalin-fixed, paraffin embedded tissue blocks were selected, and then immunostained for beta-hCG. HCG expression was compared with ER, PR, HER-2/neu, the tumor characteristics and recurrence. RESULTS: Forty-four cases (13.2%) showed positivity for beta-hCG. HCG positivity was observed in 12.0% of infiltrating ductal carcinomas (32/267), 13.3% of intraductal carcinomas (4/30), 11.1% of infiltrating lobular carcinomas (1/9), 80.0% of apocrine carcinomas (4/5) and 13.0% of the other types of carcinomas (3/23). HCG expression was statistically significant between the histological tumor types (p=0.001), but not with the patient's age (p=0.696), tumor grade (p=0.255), tumor size (p=0.510), lymph node status (p=0.620), ER (p=0.498), PR (p=0.421), HER-2/neu oncogene expression (p=0.483) and tumor recurrence (p=0.181). HCG was focally expressed in the cytoplasm of the conventional types, but the apocrine type displayed diffusely intense cytoplasmic staining. CONCLUSION: Although beta-hCG expression was statistically insignificant between the tumor recurrence (p=0.181) and biological parameters, it may be of interest in the future to correlate the presence of beta-hCG expression with a possible therapeutic response in patients of the breast cancer.