Utility of Ber-EP4 and MOC-31 in Basaloid Skin Tumor Detection

Ber-EP4 has been the traditional immunostain used for the detection of basaloid skin tumors. Recently, MOC-31 has shown be superior to Ber-EP4 in the detection of basosquamous basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and many centers are now using both Ber-EP4 and MOC-31 antibodies together to detect these lesions. The objective of this study was to compare the utility of using both Ber-EP4 and MOC-31 immunostains in the detection of basaloid skin tumors and to better characterize the previously unknown staining properties of MOC-31 in cutaneous lesions. To do this, 76 basaloid skin tumors stained with both Ber-EP4 and MOC-31 were obtained. Diagnoses included basosquamous BCC, Merkel cell carcinoma, adenoid cystic carcinoma, microcystic adnexal carcinoma, sebaceous carcinoma, trichoepithelioma, trichoblastoma, sebaceous adenoma, sebaceoma, and follicular induction overlying dermatofibroma. The distribution and intensity of Ber-EP4 and MOC-31 staining in these lesions was scored. These scores were analyzed using a truth table, χ test, and Pearson correlation tests. The overall mean and SD of the scores were also obtained. Overall, we found Ber-EP4 and MOC-31 to be statistically equivalent immunostains for the diagnosis of basaloid skin tumors. We recommend the use of only one of these antibodies and favor MOC-31 for the detection of basaloid skin tumors. We also describe MOC-31 staining properties in different cutaneous lesions.