O. Kaufmann et al., IMMUNOHISTOCHEMICAL DIFFERENTIATION OF METASTATIC BREAST CARCINOMAS FROM METASTATIC ADENOCARCINOMAS OF OTHER COMMON PRIMARY SITES, Histopathology, 29(3), 1996, pp. 233-240
To test the possibility of immunohistochemical differentiation of cyto
statically treatable metastatic breast carcinomas from other metastati
c adenocarcinomas of unknown primary site, we studied a total of 328 m
etastatic adenocarcinomas including 35 bronchogenic, 26 pancreatic, 25
colonic, 39 gastric, 45 renal, 29 ovarian and 129 breast carcinomas w
ith a panel of 13 commercially available monoclonal antibodies. The ex
pression of gross cystic disease fluid protein 15 and/or oestrogen or
progesterone receptors had a sensitivity of 0.83, a specificity of 0.9
3 and a predictive accuracy of 0.92 for carcinomas of the breast again
st all other carcinomas, Excluding ovarian carcinomas, this combinatio
n had a sensitivity, specificity and predictive accuracy for mammary c
arcinomas of 0.83, 0.98 and 0.98, respectively. Carcinoembryonic antig
en and/or cytokeratin 20 identified bronchogenic, gastric, pancreatic
and colorectal carcinomas versus breast carcinomas lacking gross cysti
c disease fluid protein 15 and oestrogen or progesterone receptors wit
h a sensitivity, specificity and predictive accuracy of 0.82, 0.99 and
0.95, respectively. Vimentin differentiates renal cell carcinomas fro
m gross cystic disease fluid protein 15 and oestrogen or progesterone
receptor negative breast carcinomas with a sensitivity, specificity an
d predictive accuracy of 0.93, 0.82 and 0.84. Thus, it should be possi
ble to differentiate most metastatic mammary carcinomas from metastati
c adenocarcinomas of other common primary sites, even if the former la
ck expression of gross cystic disease fluid protein 15 and oestrogen o
r progesterone receptors.