EZH2 expression in invasive lobular carcinoma of the breast

Invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) is the second most common histologic type of breast cancer, but the prognosis of ILC is still controversial. Enhancer of Zeste homolog 2 (EZH2), the catalytic subunit of the Polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2), is frequently overexpressed in various cancers. This study evaluated the relationship between clinicopathologic characteristics and EZH2 expression.

We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 54 patients with ILC and selected 49 cases of ILC. Immunohistochemistry for EZH2 was undertaken.

We defined ILC as discohesive cells with a linear or nonlinear growth pattern. No statistically significant difference was found for most variables, including multifocality, menstrual status, body mass index, tumor stage (pT), lymph node stage (pN), estrogen receptor, and progesterone receptor. In contrast, nuclear grade was statistically significant and EZH2 expression was associated with high nuclear grade. In total, 80% of nuclear grade 3 cases had an EZH2 score of 4, and 86% of nuclear grade 1 cases had EZH2 scores of 1 and 2. Our cases had a score of 3 for tubule formation and a score of 1 for mitosis, and so the histologic grading consisted of grades 1 (7 cases) and 2 (42 cases) depending on the nuclear grade.

Although EZH2 could not predict survival in our study, EZH2 expression was associated with a high nuclear grade. Most ILCs have histologic grade 2 with nuclear grade 2 or 3. Therefore, our opinion is that if ILC is diagnosed by separating the classic type and variants and considering both EZH2 expression and nuclear grade, EZH2 overexpression could help and the Nottingham grading system would be more accurate prognostic factor.