Correlation Between Expression of ER, PR and C-erbB-2 Protein as Histologic Grade of Breast Cancer

유방암의 조직학적 악성도에 따른 에스트로겐 수용체(ER)와 프로게스테론 수용체(PR), 그리고 C-erbB-2 종양단백질 발현과의 상관관계

Overexpressions of the estrogen receptors(ER), progesterone receptors(PR) and C-erbB-2 protein are important determiners of the response to chemotherapy in the breast cancer. For detecting ER, PR and C-erbB-2, immunohistochemistry are currently regarded as standard method. The purposes of this study compared to histologic grade and expression of the ER, PR and C-erbB-2 in breast cancer. We examined overexpression of ER, PR and C-erbB-2 protein in 84 breast carcinomas by using immunohistochemical stains. The following results were obtained. For histologic grade, 10 cases(11.9%) showed carcinoma in situ, 16 cases(19%) showed grade I, 36 cases (42.9%) showed grade II, and 22 cases(26.2%) showed grade III among the 84 test samples. The average positive rate ER and PR was 63%, 46% showed carcinoma in situ, 80%, 60% showed grade I, 64%, 41% showed grade II, 34%, 23% showed grade III, respectively. The induction of PR increased when induction of ER increased, thus showing significant relationship(p<0.05). The expression of C-erbB-2 protein was 9 cases(10.7%) in one positive(1+), 9 cases(10.7%) in two positive(2+), and 9 cases(10.7%) in three positive(3+). C-erbB-2 protein expression showed no statistical significance. In conclusion, ER and PR positive rates were inversely associated with histologic grades significantly(p<0.05). C-erbB-2 showed no significant difference with histologic grade. However ER, PR and C-erbB-2 showed significant relationship with each other(p<0.05). Therefore, these findings might be an important prognostic factor and might be arranged as a regular pathological examination in cases of breast cancer.