Recommendations for 'adequate evaluation of hormone receptors' a report of the task force of the Japanese Breast Cancer Society.

The task force of the Japanese Breast Cancer Society was assembled to examine variable factors related to the immunohistochemical evaluation of hormone receptors in breast cancer, and to provide recommendations for adequate handling of specimens and accurate evaluations for hormone receptors. The various factors examined were: i) the adequate handling of breast cancer tissue for IHC, ii) the concordant rate between EIA and IHC assays using 5 different staining methods, iii) the inter-observer diversity for evaluation, and iv) the threshold for the predictive value of endocrine therapy of primary and recurrent/metastatic breast cancers. The conducted studies found that a 10% threshold was stable and reliable in spite of different validations including the concordance between IHC and EIA assays, inter-observer diversity and disease-free survival rates for patients who received tamoxifen for primary breast cancers.

The effects of fixation, processing and evaluation criteria on immunohistochemical detection of hormone receptors in breast cancer.

A task force of the Japanese Breast Cancer Society has proposed a recommendation for adequate evaluation of hormone receptors in routine practice, in order to standardize handling of tissues, staining techniques and scoring systems. As a part of the study, several examinations were conducted to detect the effect of technical problems, including the influence of fixation time and other fixation and processing conditions, on the immunoreactivity for ERalpha. There is little influence of prolonged fixation on the immunoreactivity for ERalpha, except for cases in which particularly over-fixed blocks are used.

Immunohistochemical evaluation for hormone receptors in breast cancer: a practically useful evaluation system and handling protocol.

This article reviews the current status of hormone receptor evaluation in and out of Japan, and introduces the proposed working protocol of the task force for Adequate immunohistochemical evaluation in routine practice for breast cancer by the Japanese Breast Cancer Society. Understanding the principles and the developmental process of immunohistochemistry helps us to utilize a scoring system adequately. Methodologies of hormone receptor examination and immunohistochemical procedures are briefly introduced.