Use of Monoclonal Antibodies to Keratin in Human Tumor Diagnosis

Cytokeratin 7 and Cytokeratin 20 Expression in Epithelial Neoplasms: A Survey of 435 Cases

“…However, there are circumstances in which the determination of CK 7 positivity is useful. We agree with Ramaekers et al (11) that CK 7 immunostaining can be extremely useful when the differential diagnosis between a prostatic carcinoma and a transitional cell carcinoma of prostate or other genitourinary organs is an issue. In the current study, all cases (0/18) of prostatic carcinoma were CK 7-negative, whereas the majority of cases (21/24) of transitional cell carcinoma were CK 7-positive.…”

“…In the absence of results of other markers, the demonstration of CK 7 positivity alone has limited value in differential diagnosis of metastatic carcinoma (11). Its expression is often seen in the major categories of adenocarcinoma, including adenocarcinoma of the breast, lung, ovary, endometrium, thyroid, salivary gland, pancreas, and bile duct (21,25,26).…”

“…The finding of CK 7 negativity has greater diagnostic value (11). When a carcinoma is CK 7-negative, the differential diagnosis should include prostate, renal cell, neuroendocrine, hepatocellular, and adrenal carcinomas, carcinoid tumors, germ cell tumors, and squamous cell carcinomas of various origins with exception of cervical squamous cell carcinoma.…”

“…The diverse and unique expression of CK 7 and CK 20 in carcinomas has been found to be useful in the differential diagnosis of some carcinomas of epithelial origin (10,11). Studies have shown that the different expression patterns of CK 7 and CK 20 are among the most discriminant markers in: (1) the differential diagnosis between metastatic colon and ovarian adenocarcinomas (7,10,(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17); (2) the differential diagnosis between Merkel cell tumor of skin and small cell carcinomas of other origins (7, 11, 18 -21); and (3) the differential diagnosis between lung, endometrial, and breast adenocarcinomas and colon adenocarcinoma (20,22).…”

Primary lung cancer with metastasis to the ipsilateral breast-a case report

“…Cytokeratin 7 (CK7) is a 5-kDa basic protein, which shows strong expression in different epithelia including the breast, upper gastrointestinal tract, endometrium, urinary bladder, pancreas, biliary tract, and lung. 32,33 CK7 expression was significantly more frequent in pulmonary adenocarcinoma and breast adenocarcinoma than adenocarcinoma of gastrointestinal (GI) origin. 34 In our case CK7 test expressed positivity.…”