Immunohistochemistry Subtypes (ER/PR/HER) of Breast Cancer: Where Do We Stand in the West of Saudi Arabia?

Abstract

In Saudi Arabia, cancer of breast is ranked the most frequent neoplasm and second source of cancer deathin the female population. Breast cancer (BC) fast diagnosis, prognosis and medication management necessitate,these days, immunohistochemistry (IHC) assessment of hormone receptors and HER2 expression profile. Thepresent report defines the IHC profile of ER, PR and HER2 in Saudi female breast neoplasms of ductal andlobular types and associations ER, PR and HER2 expression patterns with various clinicopathological factors(age, type of tumor, size, laterality, histological grade, and involvement of axillaries lymph nodes). Ninety ninecases of breast tumors were recruited from the pathology department archive of King Abdulaziz UniversityHospital, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. ER, PR and HER2 expression was assessed using IHC staining. Ductalcarcinomas with a variety of histological grades constituted 88 (88.8%) of total cases. Seventy four (77.8%), 59(62.1%), and 35 (36.8%) of ductal carcinomas showed positive staining for ER, PR and HER2, in that order.Remaining breast cancer cases were four (4%) lobular carcinomas and two (2%) mixed form of ductal andlobular types, which were ER+, PR+, and HER2-. Breast cancer expression pattern of ER, PR and HER2 inSaudi female is different from that of Tunisian and Jordanian female populations and closer to the expressionpattern of Egyptian, Lebanese, Iraqi and western country females. Furthermore, the present study found twoIHC patterns of breast cancer ER+/PR-/HER2+ (5%) and ER+/PR-/HER2- (11.1%), which had not been reportedin other Arabic studies. Thus the rates of IHC expression patterns in breast cancer show some variation amongArabic female populations.