Diagnosis of precancerous lesions of the breast

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to determine the optimal markers for clarifying the degree of proliferative activity in benign breast lesions, which can be used in surgical treatment planning. Materials and methods. The immunocytochemical results of tumor proliferation marker (Ki-67), cancer-embryonic antigen (CEA), matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression were studied in biopsy samples collected from 108 patients with benign breast lesions and 49 patients with breast cancer. Results. It was found that the proliferative processes rising was accompanied by an increase in the number of patients with expression of Ki-67 to 28.0 %, CEA to 44.0 %, VEGF to 80.0 %, and a decrease in the number of patients with MMP-9 expression from 75.0 % to 36.4 %. Among patients with breast cancer, cells expressing Ki-67 were observed in 36.8 %, MMP-9 in 20.7 %, CEA in 36.4 %, VEGF in 48.3 %. The results indicate the presence of a neoplastic potential in benign lesions and its enhancement with an increase in proliferative properties. Conclusions. This diagnostic method can be used to determine the malignant potential in benign breast lesions and for therapeutic decision making.

Keywords

• mammary gland
• biochemical tumor markers
• immunocytochemistry