If the tumor is ER/PR negative the first thing I do is to look for an internal positive control (immunoreactive benign breast epithelium). In my experience, the majority of these cases have internal positive controls to validate the negative ER/PR results. When I don't see internal positive controls, and the HER2 is negative, I recommend that the testing be repeated on excisional tumor for confirmation. This is why it's important to submit adjacent benign breast tissue along with the tumor tissue when grossing.
Richard Richard W. Cartun, MS, PhD Director, Histology & The Martin M. Berman, MD Immunopathology/Morphologic Proteomics Laboratory Director, Biospecimen Collection Programs Assistant Director, Anatomic Pathology Hartford Hospital 80 Seymour Street Hartford, CT 06102 (860) 972-1596 (Office) (860) 545-2204 (Fax) richard.car...@hhchealth.org -----Original Message----- From: Greg Dobbin via Histonet [mailto:histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu] Sent: Friday, February 08, 2019 8:52 AM To: karen.heckf...@dignityhealth.org; histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu Subject: Re: [Histonet] ER/PR question CAUTION: This email is from outside HHC. USE CARE when opening attachments or links. Hi Karen, As mentioned by others "decay" is not likely going to be an issue. More concerning for you could be not knowing how those tissues were handled prior to processing 10 years ago. Presumably, you now track cold ischemic times and have standardized your fixation protocols for breast tissues and you have validated your IHC procedures with these current parameters. If your lab was like many others 10 years ago, these parameters were probably not maintained so rigorously. So interpretation of a negative result may be problematic. Having said that, there is the internal control for both ER and PR. It seems to me that if the internal control is staining adequately, then perhaps interpretation will not be an issue. I am curious, does anyone have a different take on relying the internal control as a guide in this particular situation?? Greg -- *Greg Dobbin* 1205 Pleasant Grove Rd RR#2 York, PE C0A 1P0 *Everything in moderation...even moderation itself**!* _______________________________________________ Histonet mailing list Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__lists.utsouthwestern.edu_mailman_listinfo_histonet&d=DwICAg&c=e_HtEeZEQXP5NUOb33qoTj0AVvRFBS9_rhBTQcfkWoA&r=eCMS5E4UqfGKTlPknIMjMlCkk-KGKHflslRsFz3l5JE&m=6t6lv-HaXrWz9L26Ub8EE5c9k76MJqlTDQ1XNA9cb2Q&s=_Gu4paw-d2iygUvP770iXrMhJFfeQlU9bt3MZLe-NIA&e= Reminder: This e-mail and any attachments are subject to the current HHC email retention policies. Please save or store appropriately in accordance with policy. This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure, or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, or an employee or agent responsible for delivering the message to the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message, including any attachments. _______________________________________________ Histonet mailing list Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet
