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Background: Breast cancer (BCA) is the second most common cancer among women in India and accounts for 7% of global burden of BCA. The axillary lymph node status is an independent prognostic factor. The combined estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and HER2/neu biomarker expression is a predictor of BCA status for therapeutic guidance. Studies have demonstrated that these biomarkers are unstable throughout their tumor progression. Varying concordance and discordance rates in the biomarker expression between primary breast carcinoma (PBC) and metastatic axillary lymph node (MALN) status are reported.Aim: This study was conducted for studying and comparing the expression of immunohistochemistry (IHC) markers, i.e., ER, PR, HER2/neu, p53, and Ki67 between PBC and their corresponding MALN for prognostication and therapeutic purpose.Methods: Sixty cases of PBC with metastasis to axillary lymph nodes diagnosed between years 2008 and 2014 were included in the study. A technique of manual tissue array was employed for cases subjected to IHC. Analyses of the expression of IHC markers were attempted between the PBC and their corresponding synchronous MALN and classified as concordant or discordant. Results were subjected to statistical analysis.Results: Substantial agreement was observed for biomarker ER, PR, HER2/neu, p53, and Ki67 expression between PBC and MALN with k-value 0.79, 0.75, 0.89, 0.7, and 0.6, respectively.Conclusion: There was high concordance for the IHC markers: ER, PR, HER2/neu, p53, and Ki67 expression in matched pairs of PBC and corresponding synchronous MALN. However, the discordance noted in small subgroups cannot be overlooked. Thus, there is a need to perform ER, PR, HER2/neu, p53, and Ki67 IHC studies routinely in both PBC and MALN to help design therapies that are tailored to target the specific tumor clones and render maximum benefit to patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Triple negative breast cancers (TNBC) are defined by absence of estrogen and progesterone receptors (ER and PR) and absence of overexpression of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (Her2). They are associated with poor prognosis. The purpose of this study is to study the clinicopathologic parameters of TNBC such as age, tumor size, stage, grade, and lymph node involvement and compare them with nonTNBC tumors. There are many studies which have shown that TNBC are similar to basal-like breast cancers (BBC). We have found the proportion of BBC in the TNBC group using surrogate immunohistochemical (IHC) markers cytokeratin5 (CK5) and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). Materials and Methods: This is a retrospective study of 102 cases of carcinoma breast. Clinical records of the cases were retrieved. Histopathology slides and the IHC slides (ER, PR, Her2) were reviewed. Thus, two groups of patients were made TNBC and nonTNBC. Using the software SPSS version 16 statistical significance of the difference between clinicopathologic variables of the two groups was calculated. TNBC group was later studied for the presence of basal markers CK5 and EGFR using tissue microarray. Results: Statistically significant difference was found between the two groups in the variables such as mean age at diagnosis, mean tumor size, tumor grade, and the presence of lymphovascular invasion. Conclusions: TNBC formed 23.5% of total cases. Overall, TNBC were high grade tumors with larger size at diagnosis, presenting in younger women and showing lymphovascular invasion in a higher number of cases. 87.5% of TNBC were BBC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]