FEASIBILITY OF OBTAINING BREAST EPITHELIAL-CELLS FROM HEALTHY WOMEN FOR STUDIES OF CELLULAR PROLIFERATION

Increased dietary fat intake and rate of breast epithelial cell prolif eration have each been associated with the development of breast cance r. The goal of this study was to measure the effect of a low fat, high carbohydrate diet on the rate of breast epithelial cell proliferation in women at high risk for breast cancer, Women were recruited from th e intervention and control groups of a randomized;ow fat dietary inter vention trial, breast epithelial cells were obtained by fine needle as piration, and cell proliferation was assessed in these samples using i mmunofluorescent detection of Ki-67 and PCNA. The effects of needle si ze and study group on cell yield and cytologic features of the cells w ere also examined. Fifty three women (20 in the intervention group and 33 in the control group) underwent the biopsy procedure. Slides from 38 subjects were stained for Ki-67 and from 14 subjects for PCNA. No c ell proliferation (fluorescence) was detected for either Ki-67 or PCNA in any of the slides. Epithelial cell yield and number of stromal fra gments were greater with a larger needle size. Numbers of stromal frag ments and bipolar naked nuclei were greater in the low fat as compared to the control group but no differences in epithelial cell yield were observed between the two groups. This study confirms that fine needle aspiration biopsy is a feasible method of obtaining epithelial cells from women without discrete breast masses, but suggests that cell prol iferation cannot be assessed using Ki-67 and PCNA in such samples.