Global histone modifications in breast cancer correlate with tumor phenotypes, prognostic factors, and patient outcome.

Post-translational histone modifications are known to be altered in cancer cells, and loss of selected histone acetylation and methylation marks has recently been shown to predict patient outcome in human carcinoma. Immunohistochemistry was used to detect a series of histone lysine acetylation (H3K9ac, H3K18ac, H4K12ac, and H4K16ac), lysine methylation (H3K4me2 and H4K20me3), and arginine methylation (H4R3me2) marks in a well-characterized series of human breast carcinomas (n = 880). Tissue staining intensities were assessed using blinded semiquantitative scoring.

CCND1 amplification and cyclin D1 expression in breast cancer and their relation with proteomic subgroups and patient outcome.

Introduction: Despite strong evidence regarding the role of CCND1 amplification and protein overexpression in breast carcinoma, the associations between CCND1 amplification/cyclin D1 overexpression and clinicopathological variables and clinical outcome remain controversial.

Aims Of The Study: (1) to correlate cyclin D1 expression with gene amplification; (2) to analyse the correlations between CCND1 amplification and overexpression with clinicopathological features and patients' outcome in invasive breast cancer; (3) to define the prevalence and clinical significance of cyclin D1 overexpression and CCND1 amplification in ER positive breast carcinomas (4) to define the prevalence of cyclin D1 overexpression and CCND1 amplification in breast cancers with basal-like immunophenotype.

Materials And Methods: CCND1 amplification and protein expression were assessed on a tissue microarray containing 880 unselected invasive breast cancer cases, by means of chromogenic in situ hybridisation using the Spotlight CCND1 amplification probe and immunohistochemistry, using the rabbit monoclonal antibody SP4.

High-resolution analysis of 16q22.1 in breast carcinoma using DNA amplifiable probes (multiplex amplifiable probe hybridization technique) and immunohistochemistry.

Loss of the chromosomal material at 16q22.1 is one of the most frequent genetic aberrations found in both lobular and low-grade nonlobular invasive carcinoma of the breast, indicating the presence of a tumour suppressor gene (TSG) at this region in these tumours. However, the TSG (s) at the 16q22.

Estrogen receptor-negative breast carcinomas: a review of morphology and immunophenotypical analysis.

Estrogen receptor (ER)-negative breast cancers are a group of tumors with poor prognosis and fewer cancer prevention and treatment strategies compared to ER-positive tumors. The aim of this study was to assess the morphological characteristics and immunohistochemical profile of ER-negative tumors and thus to understand the biological behavior and unique nature. In total, 291 consecutive ER-negative cases available from our primary breast cancer series were examined.

Expression of luminal and basal cytokeratins in human breast carcinoma.

We have examined basal and luminal cell cytokeratin expression in 1944 cases of invasive breast carcinoma, using tissue microarray (TMA) technology, to determine the frequency of expression of each cytokeratin subtype, their relationships and prognostic relevance, if any. Expression was determined by immunocytochemistry staining using antibodies to the luminal cytokeratins (CKs) 7/8, 18 and 19 and the basal markers CK 5/6 and CK 14. Additionally, assessment of alpha-smooth muscle actin (SMA) and oestrogen receptor status (ER) was performed.