Study of cytokeratins markers in breast carcinomas

Abstract EN

While several prognostic factors have been identified in breast carcinoma, the clinical outcome remains hard to predict for individual patients.

Better predictive markers are needed to help guide difficult treatment decisions.

In previous studies of breast carcinoma specimens, an association between poor clinical outcome and the expression of cytokeratin markers 17 and / or cytokeratin 5 mRNAs was noted. Here we describe the results of immunohistochemistry studies using monoclonal antibodies against these markers to analyze 55 paraffin-embedded breast tumors.

We found that expression of cytokeratin markers 17 and / or cytokeratin 5 / 6 in tumor cells was associated with a poor clinical outcome.

Moreover, multivariate analysis showed that in node-negative breast carcinoma, expression of these cytokeratin's markers were a prognostic factors independent of tumor size and tumor grade.