PROGNOSTIC VALUE OF IMMUNOCYTOCHEMISTRY OF THE PRIMARY TUMOR IN PATIENTS WITH METASTATIC BREAST-CANCER

The immunoreactivity of monoclonal antibodies to six tumour-associated antigens (CEA, HMFG1, HMFG2, 115D8, DF3, NCRC-11) has been assessed o n the primary breast tumours of 85 consecutive patients with metastati c breast cancer. The immunoreactivity of each antigen was correlated w ith response to endocrine therapy, probability of disease progression and post-metastases survival. No significant correlations were observe d between tumour antigen immunoreactivity and any of the clinical outc omes measured. Oestrogen receptor (ER) status correlated with probabil ity of disease progression (P = 0.03) and post-metastases survival (P = 0.007). This is in keeping with previous reports on ER. However, fro m our results immunoreactivity of tumour associated antigens in primar y breast tumours is of no prognostic value after diagnosis of metastas es.