Sensitivity and specificity of BerEP4 immunostaining in basal cell carcinoma cases in Asian skin

ABSTRACT

To evaluate the BerEP4 stain positive cases of basal cell carcinoma in our population [BCC]. A non-interventional descriptive study. Military Hospital and Armed Forces Institute of Pathology [AFIP] Rawalpindi from 1[st] January 2009 to 31[st] August 2009. Patients who reported to the skin department of Military Hospital Rawalpindi with clinical impression of BCC were biopsied. Only those cases which were easily diagnosed on Haematoxylin and Eosin [HandE] were included. All such sections were then subjected to BerEP4 immune marker and the intensity of staining was noted. In addition, 11 cases of straight forward squamous cell carcinoma [SCC] were also stained with BerEP4, which served as controls. The study group [BCC cases] included 17 males [59%] and 12 females [41%], who were histologically diagnosed as BCC. All such cases were subjected to BerEP4 immune staining. All the tumors showed positive staining, the intensity/staining pattern was however variable. Twenty-two out of twenty-nine cases showed diffuse [75.9%], while 7 out of 29 cases showed partial [24.2%] staining; irrespective of the histological subtype and site of tumor. All the SCCs were negative for BerEP4 staining. BerEP4 was positive in 100% of the cases. Its intensity was however variable. Nevertheless, it must be used with confidence in all difficult to diagnose cases of BCC, especially when it is difficult to differentiate from SCC