Immunostaining status of anaplastic lymphokinase in female breast cancer.

Abstract

Objectives: To determine the status of ALK immunostaining in female breast cancer and to find out the relationship of ALK expression with clinicopathological variables. Study Design: Cross Sectional study. Setting: Department of Pathology Al Tibri Medical College and Hospital Karachi and BMSI Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre, Karachi. Period: October 2016 to March 2017. Material & Methods: Total of 110 female cases with breast carcinoma by using non-probability purposive sampling technique. After taking informed consent from the patients, tissue samples were taken from received specimen of mastectomy for hematoxylin and eosin stain. The immunohistochemistry for ALK was assessed by using a DAKO monoclonal antibody using the paraffin embedded blocks of the diagnosed cases of breast carcinoma. Chi square test was used to find out the significance of differences among the variables. Results: Total of 110 cases with different histological classifications of breast cancer were observed i-e invasive ductal carcinoma 95(86%), invasive lobular carcinoma 9(8%), invasive medullary carcinoma 4(3.6%) and papillary carcinoma 2(1.8%). ALK expression was positive in 71(64%) and negative in 39 (35%) patients. Significant association was observed between ALK expression with histological grade (p=0.003), lymph node involvement (p=0.042) and skin involvement (p=0.025). Conclusion: Present study shows higher positive ALK expressions. Present study also indicates significant relationship of ALK with histological grade, lymph node involvement and skin involvement.