Yonsei Med J.  1991 Jun;32(2):117-125. 10.3349/ymj.1991.32.2.117.

Demonstration of estrogen receptor by immunohistochemical staining in paraffin sections of breast carcinoma

• Yang WI
• Choi IJ
• Kim HO
• Lee KS

• KMID: 1118138
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3349/ymj.1991.32.2.117

Abstract

Paraffin embedded sections of 64 breast carcinomas were stained immunohistochemically using a commercially available monoclonal antibody to estrogen receptor. To improve the sensitivity of the staining, the authors used a Pronase enzyme pretreatment, biotinylated antibody to rat IgG as secondary antibody, streptavidin-alkaline phosphatase as tertiary reagent and fast red as chromogen. When compared to the results of estrogen receptor enzyme immunoassay, this method yielded an 85.9% concordance rate, 86.2% specificity and 85.7% sensitivity. When compared to estrogen receptor immunocytochemistry(ER-ICA) in frozen section and considering the inherent advantages of immunohistochemical staining over biochemical assay, the major advantages of this method are good morphology, suitability for retrospective study and reduced cost of staining due to dilution of expensive primary antibody. Thus, this method offers an alternative to ER assay using fresh tissue and should provide additional valuable information about estrogen receptor

Keyword

Estrogen receptor; immunohistochemical staining; paraffin sections; breast carcinoma

MeSH Terms

Adult
Aged
Breast Neoplasms/*metabolism
Carcinoma/*metabolism
Comparative Study
Female
Human
Immunoenzyme Techniques
Middle Aged
Paraffin Embedding
Prognosis
Receptors, Estrogen/*analysis
Sensitivity and Specificity
Support, Non-U.S. Gov't