[Immunohistochemical evidence of vimentin in fibrocystic breast disease and mammary carcinoma].

Immunohistochemical investigations were conducted of cryostat sections taken from 25 cases of fibrocystic breast disease and 100 cases of mammary carcinoma (among them 15 cases with lymph node metastases) to obtain information on expression of vimentin. Immunoreactive epithelial cells were recordable from 12 cases of fibrocystic disease (48%) and 32 tumors (32%). In the majority of all cases with vimentin-expressing carcinoma, positive staining was exhibited by less than 10% of the neoplastic cells. No correlation was found to exist between histological tumor grade, lymph node status and vimentin expression.