Differential expression of e-cadherin in lobular and ductal carcinoma of breast in an Iranian Cancer Care Hospital

Objective: To determine the role of E-cadherin in differentiating Breast lobular carcinoma from Breast ductal carcinoma in Iranian patients. Methodology: A total of 80 malignant breast samples were reviewed by two pathologists before undergoing E-cad immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining. The results from IHC were compared with the results from the morphological study of the samples and they were then analyzed statistically. Results: The normal ductal cells had strong complete homogenous membrane E-cadherin reactivity in all cases. The complete absence of E-cadherin membrane staining occurred in 14 out of 16 cases of Lobular breast carcinoma. The mean score of E-cadherin expression in ductal carcinoma was 191.35 with a CV of 104.39. In lobular carcinoma, the mean score of E-cadherin was 9.36 with a CV of 25.68. Using the Mann–Whiteny test, the difference between E-cadherin expression score in ductal and lobular carcinoma was statistically significant (P=0.0009). Conclusion: E-cadherin expression is a useful diagnostic tool in distinguishing ductal from lobular carcinoma of breast.