RT  - European Journal of Gynaecological Oncology
ID  - 10.12892/ejgo20100190
T1  - E-cadherin expression in estrogen receptor-positive and negative breast carcinomas of postmenopausal women
A1  - B.B. da Silva
A1  - A.R. dos Santos
A1  - C.G. Pires
A1  - M.A. Correa-Lima
A1  - J.D.D. Pereira-Filho
A1  - L.G. dos Santos
A1  - C.S. Moura
A1  - P.V. Lopes-Costa
K1  - Breast; Cancer; E-cadherin; Estrogen receptor; Cell adhesion molecules.
YR  - 2011
SP  - 90
AB  - <p>Background: Preservation of E-cadherin expression is usually related to non-invasive and well differentiated breast carcinomas. Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate E-cadherin immunohistochemical expression in estrogen receptor (ER) positive and negative infiltrating ductal breast carcinomas. Methods: Twenty-three postmenopausal patients with Stage II, operable, infiltrating ductal breast carcinomas were divided into groups A (ER+; n = 13) and B (ER-; n = 10). E-cadherin immunohistochemical expression was assessed semiquantitatively according to membrane staining intensity and classified as negative (p&lt; 10% of cells with stained mem-branes), positive + (10-50% of cells stained) or positive ++ (<i>p</i>&gt; 50% of cells stained). Fisher’s exact test was used to compare the dis-tribution of staining intensity in the two groups (<i>p </i>&lt; 0.05). Results: In group A (ER+), E-cadherin staining was positive in all cases: + (n = 3; 23%) and ++ (n = 10; 77%) compared to three cases (30%) in group B (ER-), + (n = 2; 20%) and ++ (n = 1; 10%). This difference was statistically significant (<i>p </i>&lt; 0.0005). Conclusions: The present results indicate that E-cadherin expression loss is signifi-cantly associated with ER-negative tumors and therefore with a more aggressive phenotype of invasive ductal breast carcinoma.</p>