A study on stromal CD10 expression in invasive breast carcinoma

Introduction: Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers among Indian women. Although breast cancer is an epithelial malignancy, stroma plays a key role in modulating tumor invasion and metastasis. Stromal markers are now emerging as novel markers in assessing the prognosis of invasive breast cancer and have not been studied extensively till date. Aim and objectives: To estimate the frequency of expression of stromal CD10 in invasive breast carcinomas, to assess prognostic signi?cance of stromal CD10 expression and its correlation with other clinicopathological factors like age, menopausal status, tumor size, grade and lymph node status. Materials and methods: A total of 59 cases of breast cancer were included in the study. Representative sections were taken and hematoxylin and eosin staining was done. Immunohistochemistry was performed with CD10. Stromal expression of CD10 (>10% stromal positivity was considered positive) in invasive breast carcinoma was noted and was statistically analyzed with different known prognostic markers of breast carcinoma. Results: Stromal expression of CD10 was found to be signi?cantly associated with increasing tumor size (P = 0.03), increasing tumour grade (P =0.001), worsening prognosis (P = 0.002) and lymph node status (0.0005). No correlation was found between CD10 over expression and age, menopausal status. Conclusion: Tumor grade is a major prognostic indicator of breast carcinoma. Tumor size and nodal status on the other hand, are important determinants of tumor stage. Therefore, our findings concerning the positive correlations between stromal CD10 expression and tumor grade, tumor size, and nodal status suggest a strong effect of stromal CD10 expression on aggressive behavior of breast carcinoma and introduce this marker as a potential prognostic determinant in breast cancer.