Quantitation of human milk fat globule (HMFG1) expression in breast carcinoma and its association with survival.

Abstract

SUMMARY Expression of human milk fat globule (HMFG1) in immunohistochemically stained sections ofbreast carcinomas was assessed subjectively and objectively from 82 women (age range 41-96 years) to determine its prognostic importance. No correlation was observed between the degree of staining and prognosis even when the subcellular distribution ofantigen expression was assessed. The total absence of staining with HMFG1 was possibly associated with a favourable outcome, although this did not quite achieve significance with the small numbers involved. The Quantimet 970 was used for objective semiautomated measurement of immunohistochemical reactions in paraffin wax sections and was found to produce better resolution and to eliminate subjective error.In his study of squamous carcinoma of the lip Broders was one of the earliest workers to note the association between the histological differentiation of a tumour and its prognosis.' The degree of differentiation of most tumours is now considered by many pathologists and clinicians to have some prognostic value. Bloom and Richardson applied this hypothesis to breast carcinomas and separated them into three histological grades.2 This grading method, which subjectively assesses tubular differentiation, mitotic index, and nuclear characteristics, has been shown to lack interobserver reproducibility and is only moderately predictive of prognosis for grades 1 (low) and 3 (high), with less certainty for grade 2.3 There has been some evidence to suggest that the combination of histological grade and tumour stage provides a better prognostic index.4The recent development of monoclonal antibodies directed against normal constituents of breast duct epithelium5 has raised the possibility that expression of these antigens may be related to the degree of cell differentiation and hence prognosis. Present methods of grading antigen expression in paraffin wax sections are subjective and lack precision. This problem may be overcome by image analysis which permits accurate quantitation of immunoreactivity.In this retrospective study of cases of known survival of breast carcinoma we present our findings on HMFGI quantitation by standard light microscopical examination and automated image analysis.

Expression of mucins (MUC1, MUC2, MUC3, MUC4, MUC5AC and MUC6) and their prognostic significance in human breast cancer

“…47,48 Other studies, however, found no association between either level of expression or the site of expression and outcome. [49][50][51] In our series, MUC2 was expressed with a very high frequency in mucinous carcinomas compared with other tumour types as previously reported. 23,30,52 A previous study has described MUC2 expression in the adjacent in situ lesions as well as adjacent and remote normal breast tissue and suggested that altered MUC2 expression pattern existing in normal breast tissue is a directional vector in histogenesis of such histological tumour type.…”

Prognostic significance of mucin expression profiles in breast carcinoma with signet ring cells: a clinicopathological study

“…Rakha et al and others showed that the presence of MUC1 at the apical cellular site of the ductal epithelium is an indicator of intact MUC-pathway associated with good prognosis, whereas aberrant patterns of expression are indicators of defective MUC1 pathway associated with worse prognosis [17–19, 25]. By contrast, a few prior studies concluded that MUC1 expression levels and/or subcellular localization patterns are not of prognostic significance [30, 31]. In the present study, we showed that lower MUC1 expression levels and altered subcellular localization patterns are associated with adverse clinicopathological variables.…”

Critical evaluation of monoclonal antibody staining in breast carcinoma.

“…Other applications include the use of monoclonal antibodies to detect occult metastases or determine prognosis, and it is these roles that have attracted most attention in breast cancer. [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] Monoclonal antibodies reactive against breast carcinoma have been produced using several different immunogens. These include breast carcinoma metastases, milk fat globule membranes, breast carcinoma cell lines, lymph nodes from patients who have had a mastectomy, cytoplasmic intermediate filaments and receptor proteins.…”