Immunohistochemical detection of P-glycoprotein (clone C494) in canine mammary gland tumours.

Elevated levels of P-glycoprotein have been reported in multidrug-resistant tumours in both humans and dogs. In the present study, we investigated the expression of P-glycoprotein in 57 canine mammary gland tumours, 10 mammary gland hyperplasia and seven normal mammary glands by immunohistochemistry. Tissue sections were incubated with an anti-Pgp monoclonal antibody and visualized with En Vision-DAB polymer. Normal and hyperplastic mammary tissues were negative or showed slight cytoplasmic immunoreactivity. Neoplastic cells in benign mammary tumours showed diffuse cytoplasmic staining, in contrast to malignant tumours that showed mainly a membranous staining pattern for Pgp (C494). We observed statistically significant differences among all the different groups of tissues analysed except for benign tumours versus hyperplasia (P = 0.221). Receiver-operating characteristic analysis showed that the best cut-off point to differentiate the threshold to differentiate negative from positive tissue samples was 18.40% of immunostained cells. These results provide a first indication that routine evaluation of Pgp expression in canine mammary gland tumours, taking into consideration a cut-off point for positivity, may be useful for selecting cases for chemotherapy.