BACKGROUND Human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 HER2 / neu, is a trans membrane tyrosine kinase receptor of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) family and is involved in the pathogenesis of urinary bladder cancer. In this study we attempted to evaluate the HER2 / neu expression in urothelial carcinoma of bladder and its association with tumour grading. METHODS This was a cross sectional study with a sample size of 75. Routine 4 micrometre thick sections of formalin fixed paraffin embedded tissue blocks stained with haematoxylin & eosin were reviewed. Tumour grade was determined by using the World Health Organization (WHO) / International Society of Urological Pathologist criteria (ISUP). Immunohistochemistry was done by using HER2 / neu monoclonal antibody and its expression were observed. The membrane staining intensity and pattern were studied and scored. RESULTS In our study 75 cases of urothelial carcinoma were studied, of which 49 cases were papillary urothelial carcinoma low grade, 26 cases were papillary urothelial carcinoma high grade. Among these, 19 cases were infiltrating urothelial carcinoma. HER2 / neu positivity were observed in 27 (36 %) cases and overexpression in 8 (10 %) cases. Low grade urothelial carcinoma showed HER2 / neu positivity in 11 (22 %) cases and overexpression in 1 (2 %) case. High grade urothelial carcinoma showed HER2 / neu positivity in 16 (64 %) cases, among which 7 (28 %) cases showed overexpression. HER2 / neu positivity was seen in 13 (68 %) cases of infiltrating urothelial carcinoma with 4 (21 %) cases showing overexpression. A statistically significant difference in HER2 / neu expression was noted in high grade and invasive urothelial carcinoma compared to low grade and non-invasive urothelial carcinoma. CONCLUSIONS Urothelial carcinomas show overexpression of HER2 / neu and this over expression increases with increasing grade of tumour and muscle invasiveness. KEYWORDS Urothelial Carcinoma, HER2 / neu, Overexpression, Tumour Grade, Trastuzumab

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