Evaluation of ER, PR and HER2 markers by flow cytometry for breast cancer diagnosis and prognosis

Background and aims: Laboratory diagnosis of breast cancer (BC) is done by morphological analysis and immunohistochemistry (IHC). However, this methodology still has some limitations. The aim of this study is to validate flow cytometry (FC) immunophenotyping to investigate diagnostic and prognostic markers of BC. Methods: Tumor samples from surgical specimens of patients previously diagnosed with BC, were first sliced and then macerated together with PBS. Then, sample was filtered and the single cell suspension obtained was labeled with antibodies against estrogen (ER alpha), progesterone (PR) and HER2 receptors and CD45. The results were compared, in terms of sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV), with reference methods. Results: Results obtained comparing FC with reference methods were: ER alpha detection (sensitivity: 75%; specificity: 90%; PPV: 96.7%; NPV: 47.4%); PR detection (sensitivity: 72%; specificity: 70%; PPV: 79.3%; NPV: 60.8%); HER2 detection (sensitivity: 80%; specificity: 90.2%; PPV: 66.7%; NPV: 94.9%). Conclusion: The results obtained show the capacity of this methodology on BC markers differentiation. FC, together with morphological analysis and IHC can overcome individual limitations of each methodology and provide reliable results on a faster and efficient manner, resulting in improvements on BC diagnosis and prognosis.

Automated summary

The study validates the effectiveness of flow cytometry immunophenotyping in diagnosing breast cancer markers, with results showing higher sensitivity and specificity compared to reference methods.