Abstract: The immunoexpression of prostate-specific antigen in breast
cancers has been well established, but the role of this extra-
prostate PSA appears to be a complex, poorly understood and of
doubtful prognostic value. In this context, our aim was
to evaluate PSA in breast carcinomas and to compare the results
with several established prognostic markers of breast cancer:
estrogen and progesterone receptors status, HER2/neu status,
histological type of tumor, grade of differentiation, stage,
tumor size, nodal and menopausal status. We have
immunohistochemically assessed 53 breast carcinomas for PSA, ER, PR
and oncoprotein HER2/neu status. The relationship between the
clinical and histopathological markers was analyzed by
chi-square test. In the present study PSA was expressed in 60.3%
of cases, and we have found a significant correlation with
the histological type and HER2/neu negative status in
premenopausal women. No statistically significant difference was
found between PSA positivity and menopausal status of the
patients, nodal status, estrogen and progesterone receptors,
HER2/neu status in postmenopausal patients, tumor size or
histological grade. We conclude that in our study PSA can not be
considered as a valuable independent prognostic factor in breast
carcinoma. As long as the majorities of PSA positive carcinomas
were small in size, early stage, better and moderately
differentiated, HER2/neu negative and 70% of ER/PR positive
carcinomas expressed PSA, it might be useful as a marker for a
subset of breast cancers with better prognosis, which could
respond to endocrine therapy, in correlation with other prognostic
markers.
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