European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Background: Breast lesions are not a single entity rather they represent heterogenous group of disease with marked clinic morphological diversity, varied disease aggressiveness and response to treatment. Myoepithelial markers help to distinguish invasive carcinomas from benign neoplasms with similar morphological appearance. In breast, p63 antibody is a myoepithelial marker that exclusively stains the nuclei of myoepithelial cells and is not expressed in vascular smooth muscles, stromal myofibroblasts and in surrounding adipocytes. This makes p63 more specific and superior to other myoepithelial markers.
Materials and Methods: The present study was done on total of 53 breast specimens received in the Department of Pathology. All specimens were routinely processed and stained with H &E and then subjected to p63immunohistochemical staining using normal breast tissue as positive control.
Results: Out of 53 cases, 30 cases were benign, 05 cases were premalignant and 18 cases were malignant. All malignant cases were negative for p63 expression,  all benign and premalignant cases were positive for p63 with varied pattern of expression. Benign non proliferative lesions were continuous positive (score-3), proliferative lesions showed less continuous positive (score-2) and premalignant lesions like ductal carcinoma in situ were discontinuously positive (score-1) with well-defined two or more nuclear spaces between two positive p63 nuclei.
Conclusion: There is considerable interobserver disagreement in the interpretation of difficult breast lesions based on histopathology alone. Myoepithelial markers like p63 are useful in helping to distinguish invasive carcinomas from benign proliferative lesions and most premalignant lesions with an intact myoepithelium.