Role of immunohistochemical markers in breast carcinoma and other breast pathologies: A review with a note on recent update

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most common cause of malignancy worldwide in women & second most common cause of death among them. Higher number of cases have been observed from more developed regions than in less developed. In India age adjusted incidence rate of breast cancer is 2.8/100000 than United Kingdom (95/100000).Breast specimens for histopathological evaluation are one of the most common surgical pathology specimens encountered by a surgical pathologist. In regular breast pathology, immunohistochemistry is a useful tool for both diagnostic and prognostic purposes. Although, most breast lesions may be diagnosed using routine hematoxylin and eosin sections; but, in a few situations, such as morphologically equivocal instances or metastatic cancers of unknown source, immunohistochemistry can help to make a more accurate diagnosis.This review will focus on diagnostic immunomarkers. However, the main goal of this review is to assess the diagnostic value of the most commonly investigated immunomarkers in the field of breast pathology by a review of the literature utilising the PubMed (US National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland) database of indexed publications from 1976 to 2022.