Comparison of CD10 expression in stroma of epithelial and mesenchymal tumors of the breast

Maha E. Salama¹*, Wael S. Ibrahim¹ and Dina A. Khairy²

¹Pathology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Egypt.

²Pathology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Beni Sueif University, Egypt.

*Corresponding Author E-mail: maha.elsayed@kasralainy.edu.eg; Phone Number: 0020-01001519184

Accepted 21 January, 2015

Abstract

The stroma surrounding a tumor is of utmost importance in deciding the tumor behaviour and progression thus studying its nature may contribute to finding new and effective methods of treatment. This study aimed at comparing the expression of CD10 in the desmoplastic stroma of breast carcinoma and the neoplastic stroma of phyllodes tumor. Paraffin blocks of 70 Egyptian female cases were collected, 36 cases with invasive duct carcinoma and 34 with phyllodes tumors. CD10 immunostaining was scored as negative when there was no tumor stromal staining, weak when there was diffuse weak staining or weak or strong focal staining in less than 30% of tumor stromal cells and strong when there was strong staining in 30% or more of tumor stromal cells. Positive CD10 expression was seen in 77.8% of invasive duct carcinoma and 32.4% of phyllodes tumor. In invasive duct carcinoma, most grade I cases showed weak CD10 immunostaining (66.7%), while most of grade III cases showed strong CD10 staining (71.4%) (p<0.001). In  phyllodes tumors, most of benign cases were CD10 negative (83.3%), while strong CD10 staining was seen in 60% of malignant cases (p<0.001). In conclusion, CD10 was more widely expressed in the desmoplastic stroma of invasive duct carcinoma rather than the neoplastic stroma of phyllodes tumor. Moreover, stromal CD10 expression seemed to correlate with the tumor grades in invasive duct carcinoma as well as phyllodes tumors.

Keywords: CD10, breast, immunohistochemistry, phyllodes, duct carcinoma