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Pregnancy‐specific Beta‐1 glycoprotein (SP‐1) in breast carcinoma. Pathologic and clinical considerations
Author(s) -
Kuhajda Francis P.,
Bohn Hans,
Mendelsohn Geoffrey
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.052
H-Index - 304
eISSN - 1097-0142
pISSN - 0008-543X
DOI - 10.1002/1097-0142(19841001)54:7<1392::aid-cncr2820540727>3.0.co;2-m
Subject(s) - medicine , pathology , immunoperoxidase , carcinoma , lobular carcinoma , breast carcinoma , epithelium , carcinoma in situ , mammary gland , fibroadenoma , ductal carcinoma , breast cancer , antibody , cancer , immunology , monoclonal antibody
Ectopic production of placental proteins by a variety of nontrophoblastic epithelial tumors is well recognized. Pregnancy‐specific beta‐1 glycoprotein (SP‐1), a recently described placental protein, has been detected both in the serum and tumors of patients with breast carcinoma. To assess the significance of SP‐1 in breast carcinoma, we stained 139 cases of primary breast carcinoma for SP‐1 using the immunoperoxidase technique. Overall, 55 (40%) of breast cancers were positive for SP‐1; focal positivity was also noted in normal breast epithelium and fibrocystic disease. Both intraductal (32%) and infiltrating duct (43%) carcinomas were more often positive than either in situ (5%) or infiltrating (26%) lobular carcinomas. SP‐1 positivity in tumors of infiltrating duct morphology less than 3 cm in diameter, correlated highly ( P < 0.01) with the presence of axillary lymph node metastases. The presence of SP‐1 in normal breast epithelium and fibrocystic disease and the low rate of positivity in lobular carcinoma casts doubt on the usefulness of SP‐1 as a tumor marker. However, these findings suggest that immunopositivity for SP‐1 in small infiltrating duct carcinomas may be an indicator of poor prognosis.