EXPRESSION OF E-CADHERIN (E-CD) AS RELATED TO OTHER PROGNOSTIC FACTORS AND SURVIVAL IN BREAST-CANCER

A series of 208 breast cancer biopsies were analysed immunohistochemic ally for expression of E-cadherin (E-CD). Altogether, 72 per cent of t he tumours showed E-CD positivity in over 50 per cent of cells, the st aining being heterogeneous in nearly all tumours. In only 16 per cent of ductal carcinomas was positive staining seen in less than 1 per cen t of cells. Expression of E-CD was not related to tumour diameter, nod al status, metastasis at diagnosis, histologicaI grade, DNA ploidy, S- phase fraction, nuclear area, mitotic frequency, or PR content. There was a significant relationship between expression of E-CD, histologica l type (P=0.01), the proportion of intraductal growth (P=0.008), the d ensity of tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes (P=0.0007), ER content (P=0. 012), and morphometric nuclear factors (P<0.02). Expression of E-CD sh owed a weak association with a high survival probability (P=0.02), whi le the relation to recurrence-free survival was not significant (P=0.1 ). In axillary lymph node-negative tumours, E-CD expression was not re lated significantly to survival(P=0.11) or to recurrence-free survival (P=0.06). In multivariate analysis, E-CD expression had no independen t prognostic value, while the axillary lymph node status, tumour diame ter, patient age, and mitotic frequency were independent prognostic fa ctors. The results indicate that E-CD expression is related to several histological features in breast cancer, but has no independent progno stic value over standard prognostic factors.