بررسي چگونگي تظاهر E-Cadherin در كارسينوم مهاجم داكتال پستان همراه با متاستاز غدد لنفاوي زير بغل

Assessment of E-cadherin Manifestation in Invasive Ductal Breast Carcinoma Associated with Axillary Lymph Node Metastases

Background and purpose: Breast carcinoma is the most common malignant tumor leading to death among women. Risk of Metastasis of the tumor, as a major cause of death and disability in these patients is associated with factors such as number of involved lymph nodes, size of tumor, patient age and microscopic degree of the tumor. The aim of this study was to determine the E-cadherin manifestation in invasive ductal breast carcinoma associated with axillary lymph node metastases. Materials and methods: In this cross-sectional study, slides, blocks and files of 100 subjects with invasive ductal breast carcinoma whan underwent radical mastectomy were collected from the medical records at the Imam and Shafa Hospitals in Sari during 2001-2008. The slides were reviewed and re-graded. Data including: patient age, size of tumor and number of involved axillary lymph nodes were extracted from the patientsʹ records. Slides were prepared from paraffin blocks to present normal or abnormal E-cadherin expression by immunohistochemical method. Data were recorded in Checklists and analyzed by SPSS software using descriptive analysis, Chi-Square and Fisherʹs exact tests. Results: The prevalence of abnormal markers expression in the samples was 39%. There was no statistically significant relationship between the expression of abnormal marker and metastatic axillary lymph nodes and size of tumor (P<0.05), but it was significant with the degree of histopathology of the tumor (P<0.05) and age of the patients (P<0.05), as abnormal expression was seen more in higher histopathologic grade and age below 35 years. Conclusion: Due to lack of correlation between E-cadherin expressions with metastasis of lymph nodes in invasive ductal breast carcinoma, assessment of other etiologic factors such as other adhesive markers like dysadherin and other clinicopathologic factors for lymph node metastases seems necessary.