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Introduction: Breast cancer is rapidly emerging as the leading cause of cancer in Indian women. Diagnosis can be made on cytology and histopathology. The use of Immunohistochemistry (IHC) to assess the status of Estrogen receptor (ER), Progesterone receptor (PR) and HER2/neu (Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2) status, can provide information for the oncologist to plan the management protocol. Aim: To assess the ER, PR, HER2/neu status in cases of carcinoma breast and its correlation with histological grade and other clinicopathological parameters. Materials and Methods: This study was a prospective study conducted at MKCG MCH Brahmapur, Odisha, India of 82 cases for a period of one year and six months duration (June 2013-December 2014) where in all histopathologically diagnosed cases of breast carcinoma were included. BioGenex kit was used for IHC staining and Dako kit for HER2/neu. Allred scoring was used for ER & PR and Scaff-Bloom-Richardosn for HER2/neu. Statistical analysis was done with SPSS software version 20.0, Fisher’s exact test, Chi-square test and student’s t-test. Results: In present study, the ER, PR and HER2/neu status were correlating significantly with histological grade. The grade II tumors had low ER/PR positivity, HER2/neu positive, while none of the grade I tumours were ER/PR negative, HER2/neu positive (p5 cm), predominantly of higher histologic and high nuclear grade of modified ScarfBloom-Richardson (SBR) grading, with necrosis, vascular invasion and of clinical stage III. Conclusion: In addition to the established prognostic parameters like histopathological grading and other clinicopathological parameters, hormone receptor status is also very useful and it also correlates well with the former ones. The present observation suggests for incorporation of IHC analysis in routine histopathology reports as they contribute in deciding the treatment protocol.

Secondary malignancies following treatment of primary carcinomas have been reported in the literature and serious debate has emerged regarding the risk of secondary malignancies post therapy along with risk associated with different regimens. (chemotherapy / radiotherapy). The present report describes two cases of multiple myeloma following carcinoma cervix and intraductal carcinoma breast post therapy after three and fifteen years respectively and thus highlights the risk of multiple myeloma associated with different regimens of treatment of solid carcinomas. It also lays the importance of balance between the benefits of therapy of carcinoma and the risk of treatment associated multiple myeloma. The cases specify the need of vigilant follow up of any primary carcinoma, irrespective of time, in the light of early detection of secondary malignancy.

Background: Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2/neu (HER2/neu) assessment is carried out in gastric adenocarcinomas (GAC) and invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) breast to decide upon of trastuzumab targeted therapy. The study the only of its kind which has compared the influence of HER2/neu expression to markers of tumor aggression in these two malignancies in similar target population. Material and Methods: HER2/neu evaluation was conducted by immunohistochemistry (IHC) using the guidelines of Trastuzumab for Gastric Cancer trial for GAC and ASCO-CAP 2013 for IDC breast. The study correlated HER2/neu expression with markers of tumor aggression. Aims: The present retrospective study compares the disease influence of HER2/neu over expression on markers of disease aggression like age at presentation, grade of tumor and lymph node metastasis in GAC and IDC. Results: We have compared 82 cases of GAC with 113 cases of IDC. HER2/neu expression was seen in 23.2% and 36.3% of GACs and IDCs respectively. The mean age of HER2/neu positive GACs was found to be 3.47 years greater than their negative counterpart but the pattern was reversed in cases of IDC breast where the mean age of HER2/neu positive tumors was 6.09 years less than their negative counterpart. Though no correlation was found between grade of tumor and HER2neu status in GACs (P = 0.2930), however in IDC breast a significant correlation HER2neu positivity was found with higher grade (P = 0.0002). Similarly though we did not find any correlation of HER2neu status with nodal metastasis in GACs (P 0.0511) but in IDCs a significant correlation was found of nodal metastasis with HER2/neu positivity (P = 0.0001). Conclusion: We conclude that HER2/neu expression is more frequent in IDC breast and is significantly associated with markers of aggression in contrast to its influence on the same markers in GACs.