BACKGROUND Breast cancer is now the most common cancer in cities in India and 2 nd most common cancer in the rural areas. Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is a less invasive pre-operative diagnostic method and is preferred over core / excision biopsy to decide the benign or malignant nature of the breast lump. Prognostic factor assessment by FNAC would allow the identification of patients who would benefit from neo adjuvant treatment (patients with grade 3 tumours) and in whom conservation surgery is inadvisable.1 The purpose of this study is to compare the grades of breast cancer in FNAC with histopathology as gold standard and compare the oestrogen (ER) and progesterone (PR) hormonal expression pattern on immunocytochemistry (ICC) with immunohistochemistry (IHC). From this study we intend to assess the usefulness of cytological grading and ER, PR hormone receptor status pre-operatively so that hormonal therapy can be included with neoadjuvant chemotherapy. METHODS This is a cross sectional study with a sample size of 50, conducted in the Department of Pathology. RESULTS Out of 50 cases, maximum number of patients were in the age group of 51 - 60 years. 68 % had attained menopause; 69 % of patients had tumour size between 2 - 5 cm and 90 % of tumours were in the upper outer quadrant of breast. Considering hormonal expression, in case of ER there was a moderate agreement between ICC and IHC (κ = .428, P = 0.005) and no agreement was seen in case of PR (κ = .073, P = 0.625). Regarding the cytological grading, this study showed highest degree of concordance with grade II tumours with a sensitivity of 75.9 %. For Grade I it was 2.5 % and for grade III, it was 33.3 %. CONCLUSIONS Evaluation of hormonal status and nuclear grading is fairly reliable on cytology when performed on qualitatively superior FNAC material from the primary breast lesions. KEYWORDS Carcinoma Breast, FNAC, ER / PR, Immunocytochemistry, Immunohistochemistry, Cytological Nuclear Grading

BACKGROUND Ovarian tumours are the common cause of morbidity and mortality in women worldwide. Primary epithelial ovarian tumours comprise the majority. Cluster differentiation 44 (CD-44) is a trans-membrane glycoprotein which plays a role in cell- cell interaction, adhesion and migration, leading to the progression and metastasis of tumour. E-cadherin is another cell adhesion molecule which plays an important role in neoplastic progression. So, it is necessary to find out the relationship of CD-44 and E-cadherin expression with histological types and tumour differentiation, which might predict the prognosis. The present study was undertaken to assess the pattern of expression of CD-44 and E-cadherin in primary epithelial tumours of ovary and to determine the relationship between their expression with age, histological type and tumour differentiation. METHODS This is a cross-sectional study conducted in the Department of Pathology, Government Medical College, Thrissur; a tertiary care institution. Histological types and tumour differentiation for each case was determined from haematoxylin and eosin sections. Immunohistochemical stain for CD-44 and E-cadherin was done. Pattern of expression was studied and a semi quantitative score was calculated. Expression of both markers was then compared with the age, histological type and tumour differentiation. RESULTS Out of 57 cases studied, majority of the patients had serous (21 cases) or mucinous tumours (20 cases). The mean age group was 54.5 years. CD-44 expression was significantly correlated with tumour differentiation but there was no correlation found with age and histological type. In E-cadherin expression, there was no correlation with age, histological type and tumour differentiation. CONCLUSIONS For primary epithelial tumours, expression of CD-44 could be an indicator for tumour progression, invasiveness or distant metastasis. Poorly differentiated tumours with increased expression may be helpful in predicting disease progression. Target therapy can be employed in such cases. In case of E-cadherin which is said to be a prognostic marker, more studies help in bridging the gap between prognosis and outcome. KEYWORDS CD-44, E-cadherin, Immunohistochemistry, Epithelial Ovarian Tumours f

BACKGROUND Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in females. Triple negative breast carcinomas (TNBC), one of the molecular subtypes of breast carcinoma, are not sensitive to hormonal therapy and are reported to have aggressive behaviour. The present study was done to evaluate the expression of Ki67 in triple negative breast cancer using immunohistochemistry (IHC) and correlate the Ki67 expression with other clinicopathological variables. METHODS Based on the IHC status (ER, PR, HER neu), 50 triple negative breast carcinoma cases were selected from January 2019 to June 2020 for a cross-sectional study in Department of Pathology, Government medical college Thrissur. Ki67 immunohistochemical staining was done on the tissue sections and the Ki67 score was correlated with clinicopathological variables. RESULTS Of the 50 cases, majority (74 % cases) had high Ki67 expression (score of more than 50 %). High Ki67 score was strongly associated with presence of lymphovascular emboli (LVE) (P value < 0.05). Even though most of the patients were above 50 years (72 %), no significant correlation was seen between age and Ki67 score. The association with tumour size, histopathological type, tumour grade and lymph node status were not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS Ki67 expression was high in triple negative breast cancer with mean score of 62 %. High Ki67 score correlated with presence of LVE. High Ki67 would predict increased proliferation of breast cancer cells and could be considered as a prognostic marker. KEYWORDS TNBC- Triple Negative Breast Cancer, Ki 67 Score, Clinicopathological Variables