Apoptosis, Proliferative Activity And Hormone Receptors In Human Breast Carcinomas.
O.S. Frankfurt, J.A. Robb, E.V. Sugarbaker and L. Villa, Oncology Laboratory, Cedars Medical Center, Miami, Florida.
We present application of a novel immunohistochemical procedure for the staining of apoptotic (AP) cells in paraffin sections using monoclonal antibody to single-stranded DNA. (Anticancer Res. 14:1861). AP carcinoma cells stained with the antibody were detected in 32 of 58 infiltrating human breast carcinomas. There was a strong positive correlation between the presence of AP cells, loss of hormone receptors and a high proliferation rate. AP cells were present in 80-87% of receptor-negative carcinomas, while most of receptor-positive carcinomas did not contain AP cells. Apoptosis was detected more frequently among carcinomas with high, than among carcinomas with low S-phase fraction. AP cells were present in 93-95% of breast carcinomas which were receptor-negative and had a high S-phase fraction. These data are consistent with known loss of bcl-2 protein in receptor negative breast carcinomas. Correlation between apoptosis and markers of poor prognosis suggests that AP index may be an additional prognostic indicator for breast cancer. Supported by NCI Grant CA50677.