Collagen XIα1. A New Marker for Breast Carcinoma Malignancy in Core Needle Biopsies
Javier Freire, Saioa Dominguez, Saray Pereda, Ana De Juan, Alfonso Vega, Laureano Simon, Javier Gomez. Hospital Universitario Marqués de Valdecilla, Santander, Spain; Oncomatrix, Bilbao, Spain
Background: The accurate diagnosis between invasive breast carcinoma and not infiltrating lesions, may be, sometimes, very complex in the everyday-work of the pathologist. It has been shown that the extracellular matrix plays an essential role in breast tumor development and progression, being the protein collagen its main component. Several collagen organ and pathology specific types have been described, and thus it can be used as a potential target in epithelial-mesenchymal transition changes. Collagen type XIα1 (COLXIα1) has been studied in colorectal and pancreas adenocarcinomas acting as a marker of advanced lesions. Our work sought to revise COLXIα1 role in differential diagnosis between invasive and not infiltrative breast lesions.
Design: Immunohistochemistry of COLXIα1 was performed in formalin fixed, paraffin embedded Core Needle Biopsy (CNB) samples of 105 patients with radiological evidence of breast tumor. We finally examined 12 Ductal Carcinoma In Situ (DCIS), 46 Infiltrating Ductal Carcinomas (IDC), 7 Infiltrating Lobular Carcinoma (ILC) and 40 non-neoplasic lesions (fibroadenoma, hyperplasia, fibrosis ...).
Results: Our results show a significant difference (p <0.001) between infiltrating tumors (48 out of 53 positive) and the rest of the lesions, both in situ carcinomas (1 out of 12) and non-neoplastic (2 out of 40). Positive staining was clearly observed in fibroblast's cytoplasm on carcinoma progression areas, (Figure 1) whereas signal was not detected in any other lesions but two cases of intraductal papilloma (without posterior surgical confirmation).
Conclusions: These data suggest that stromal fibroblast overexpression of COL11α1 is an infiltrative growth robust marker, with very high levels of sensitivity and specificity greater than 90%.
Monday, March 4, 2013 1:00 PM
Poster Session II # 38, Monday Afternoon