Takahashi S, Narimatsu E, Asanuma H, Okazaki M, Okazaki A, Hirata K, Mori M, Chiba T, Sato N, Kikuchi K
Division of Clinical Pathology, Sapporo Medical University Hospital, Japan.
Oncology. 1995 Sep-Oct;52(5):371-5. doi: 10.1159/000227491.
The authors immunohistochemically studied the expression of the estrogen receptor (ER), 27-kD heat shock protein (HSP27) and pS2 in 118 invasive primary human breast cancers. Positive nuclear staining of the ER was detected in 64% of the cases and was closely correlated with the biochemical assay (p < 0.0001). ER-positive tumors were significantly decreased with tumor size and stage (p < 0.001 each), but not with lymph node status. Positivity of the ER was correlated with the cytoplasmic expression of HSP27 (p < 0.005), pS2 (not significant) and HSP70 (not significant). ER negativity was significantly correlated with the expression of p53, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and c-erbB-2 (p < 0.05 each). Thus, it was concluded that ER-positive breast carcinomas, relatively small in size, preferentially expressed HSP27, HSP70 and pS2 and that ER-negative tumors, relatively large in size, were predisposed to express p53, EGFR and c-erbB-2.
