الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Background: Breast cancer (BC) is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the main cause of cancer-related deaths in females worldwide. Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are crucial regulators of cancer cells and microenvironment. TAMs stimulate breast tumor progression, including tumor cell growth, invasion and metastasis. CD68 and CD163 are glycoproteins that are expressed in human monocytes and tissue macrophages. CD68 is a pan-macrophage marker while CD163 is a highly specific macrophage/monocyte marker.Previous studies demonstrated that TAMs infiltration is associated with poor clinical outcomes in breast cancer. TAMs have been considered as a potential target for adjuvant therapy. Objectives: Evaluation of the immunohistochemical expression of macrophage CD68 and CD163 markers in various types of breast carcinoma and correlation of CD68 and CD163 expressions with other available clinical and pathological features. Material and Methods: Forty cases of BC tissue sections were collected from mastectomy specimens. IHC expressions of CD68 & CD163 were investigated in TC & TS. Results: CD68 expression was positive in 30 cases (75.0%) and negative in 10 cases (25.0%), while CD163 expression was positive in 17 cases (42.5%) and negative in 23 cases (57.5%). Regarding CD68 expression, IDC-NST was the commonest histological type (73.0%), followed by ILC (26.7%) with no (0%) mixed type. 65.7% of the cases showed nuclear grade II, 43.3% were grade III and the remaining 10% were grade I. The tumor sections were also examined for the presence of lymph node metastasis (positive in 70%), in situ component (40%) and lymphovascular or perineural invasion (positive in 63.3%) |