Estrogen and progesterone hormone receptor status in breast carcinoma: Comparison of immunocytochemistry and immunohistochemistry

Context : Estrogen receptors (ER) and progesterone receptors (PR) play a significant role in the prognosis of breast cancer. For preoperative chemotherapy in locally advanced lesions, trucut biopsy is used to localize the ER and PR receptors by immunohistochemistry. Immunocytochemistry can be a better alternative to immunohistochemistry as it better fixes cells.
AIMS : To evaluate the degree of correlation between immunocytochemical (ICC) and immunohistochemical (IHC) determination of ER and PR in breast cancer.
Settings and Design : Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) was performed on 100 primary breast cancers immunostained for ER and PR during a period of 1 year 7 months, i.e., from January 2006 to July 2007.
Materials and Methods : Papanicolaou-stained slides were destained, fixed in cold acetone and submitted for immunocytochemistry. In the prospective analysis, FNAC smears were straightaway fixed in cold acetone and submitted for ER and PR. Peroxidase, antiperoxidase technique was used for immunocytochemistry.
Statistical Analysis : Spearman Rank correlation test was used.
Results : Differences between groups were analysed and correlations were studied. Concordance for ER was 50% and for PR was 29%. Both ER and PR were positive in four cases: ER only in three and PR in one, and both were negative in nine cases. Use of the least best buffer and technical errors contributed to the lower ICC rate.
Conclusion : Although Immunocytochemistry removes the derogatory step of antigen deterioration, technical errors can cause hindrance in achieving the best of the results.

Keywords
Breast cancer, Estrogen receptors: estrogen, Progesterone receptors: progesterone, immunocytochemistry, immunohistochemistry