The role of wide-spectrum cytokeratin staining of the bone marrow cores in patients with ductal carcinoma of the breast.

The usefulness of routine pancytokeratin staining of bone marrow cores (BMCs)--negative for hematoxylin and eosin (HE)--from patients with lobular carcinoma of the breast has been fairly well established. However, the role of wide-spectrum cytokeratin staining of HE-negative BMCs from patients with ductal carcinoma has not been as well determined and is the purpose of this study. Forty-two prospectively and retrospectively reviewed He-negative BMCs from 21 patients with ductal breast carcinoma failed to reveal staining with a wide-spectrum cytokeratin stain, supporting the selective use of this immunostain in "suspicious" cases with atypical cells detected in HE BMCs.