Background: Mucinous breast carcinoma is characterized by the production of variable amounts of mucin. Some studies have addressed immunohistochemical characterization of mucinous breast carcinoma using a limited set of antibodies. However, the purpose of the present study was to investigate a larger panel of markers not widely used in daily practice and to determine their pathological implications.
Methods: Forty patients diagnosed with mucinous breast carcinoma were enrolled. An immunohistochemical study was performed on whole sections of paraffin embedded tissue, using antibodies for the following markers: estrogen receptor alpha and beta, progesterone receptor, androgen receptor, HER2, EGFR, Ki-67, E-cadherin, β-catenin, p53, chromogranin, synaptophysin, GCDFP15, mammaglobin, and CDX2.
Results: The pure mucinous type was more prevalent in older patients and more frequently expressed GCDFP15. Capella type B presented more frequently with a high Ki-67 index and neuroendocrine differentiation. Although there was a lower frequency of vascular invasion and lymph node metastases in the pure type, the difference was not statistically significant. No case expressed CDX2 (a marker for gastrointestinal tumors), while 85% of the cases expressed at least one of the two typical breast markers (GCDFP15 and mammaglobin), suggesting that these markers may be reliably used for differential diagnosis. Expression of estrogen receptor beta was related to the presence of mucin cell producing lymph node metastasis, with potential prognostic and predictive value.
Conclusion: our findings support the immunohistochemical homogeneity of mucinous breast carcinomas because only minor differences were found when subgrouping them into Capella types A and B or into types pure and mixed.
Keywords: Capella type A and B; Estrogen receptor-beta; Neuroendocrine differentiation.
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