Objective.To explore the key role of immunohistochemistry in guiding adjuvant therapy decisions and sentinel node staging in breast cancer, as well as the role of immunohistochemistry as an aid to distinguishing usual ductal hyperplasia from atypical ductal hyperplasia/low-grade carcinoma in situ; subtyping a carcinoma as ductal or lobular, basal or luminal; ruling out microinvasion in extensive intraductal carcinoma; distinguishing invasive carcinoma from mimics; and establishing that a metastatic carcinoma of unknown primary site has originated in the breast.
Immunohistochemistry is playing an increasing role in the modern pathology of breast disease. Some of the diagnostic uses of IHC include differentiating UDH from ADH/LG-DCIS, ruling out microinvasion, distinguishing invasive carcinoma from pseudoinvasive lesions, identifying breast cancer histologic subtype and molecular phenotype, and confirming the breast as the primary site in metastatic carcinoma. In addition, immunohistochemical markers are useful for estimating prognosis and predict- ing therapy response. The best approach to the use of immunohistochemical markers is to couple them with stan- dard hematoxylin-eosin histology and to use panels of markers.
Article first published: March 2008
doi: 10.1043/1543-2165(2008)132[349:AOITBL]2.0.CO;2.
URL: Download hereCitation: [Application of immunohistochemistry to breast lesions. (2008) Archives of pathology & laboratory medicine vol. 132 (3) p. 349-58] From: US National Library of Medicine (http://www.nlm.nih.gov) – National Institutes of Health (http://www.nih.gov).
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