Expression of E-cadherin, p120catenin and 34βE12 in invasive lobular carcinoma of breast and their roles in diagnosis / 中华病理学杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate expressions of E-cadherin (E-cad), p120catenin (p120), 34βE12 in invasive lobular carcinomas of the breast and their roles of diagnoses.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The 81 cases of ILC, including 67 cases of pure type and 14 cases of ductal-lobular mixed type, which had been diagnosed in our department were collected and immunohistochemistry of E-cad, p120 and 34βE12 were performed. All the cases were diagnosed again according to morphology and immunophenotypes (MaxVision method), and difference of diagnoses and expressions of the three indexes were analysed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Sixty four of 81 cases were permantly diagnosed of ILC. In the 61 cases of pure type, 54 cases displayed E-cad negative and p120 cytoplastic positive, 1 case displayed E-cad negative and p120 atypical positive, 3 cases displayed E-cad membrane positive and p120 cytoplastic positive, and 3 cases displayed both atypical positive. Fifty two of 61 cases displayed 34βE12 positive. The 3 cases of mixed type displayed p120 cytoplastic positive, and 2 cases displayed E-cad negative and 1 case displayed atypical positive. All the 3 cases displayed 34βE12 positive.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The diagnosis of ILC is one of the most difficult problems in breast pathology, and combination of E-cad and p120 immunostaining is an effective method for assistance. It needs further studies for invasive ductal carcinomas with morphological features of lobular carcinomas.</p>