A plea for appraisal and appreciation of immunohistochemistry in the assessment of prognostic and predictive markers in invasive breast cancer.
(2017) The Breast — Vol. 37, p. 52-55 (2017)
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- Authors
- Abstract
- This viewpoint is a personal reflection on the values and merits of immunohistochemistry in current breast cancer diagnosis. Immunohistochemistry is a validated mainstay in molecular subtyping of invasive breast cancer. Immunohistochemical assessment of hormone receptor status and HER2 expression is used to determine the clinico-pathological surrogate of breast cancer intrinsic subtypes, which guide neoadjuvant and adjuvant therapy. The advent of genomic prognostic signatures and qualitative mRNA-based assays makes some clinicians and researchers wonder whether immunohistochemistry should be abandoned. However, the perils and pitfalls of these mRNA-based tests cannot be neglected. This viewpoint offers a brief overview of quality issues in immunohistochemistry and qPCR, as well as a concise summary of currently available evidence on the correlation of immunohistochemistry and mRNA-based testing for prognostic and predictive markers in invasive breast cancer. We strongly advocate the use of immunohistochemistry as it integrates valuable spatial information with quantification of protein expression.
- Affiliations
Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam Department of Pathology
Citations
Van Bockstal, M., Floris, G., Galant, C., Lambein, K., & Libbrecht, L. (2017). A plea for appraisal and appreciation of immunohistochemistry in the assessment of prognostic and predictive markers in invasive breast cancer. The Breast, 37, 52-55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.breast.2017.10.012 (Original work published 2017)