Expression of B-cell Lymphoma 2 in Breast Cancer

Immunohistochemical expression of B-cell lymphoma 2 (BCL-2) is seen variably in invasive ductal carcinoma. This study was conducted to determine the frequency of BCL-2 expression in different histologic grades of invasive ductal carcinoma.

A cross-sectional study was conducted in the Department of Pathology at Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, Pakistan, on subjects with invasive ductal carcinoma of various histologic grades. Immunohistochemistry was done using the BCL-2 antibody in all cases. The frequency of BCL-2-positive cases in different histologic grades was noted. Post-stratification, the Chi-square test was applied. P ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

All 52 subjects were female (100%) with a mean age of 47.58 ± 1.43 years. BCL-2 expression was observed in 28 (53.85 %) subjects with breast cancer. Out of 33 participants with Grade III, 13 (39.39 %) participants were positive for BCL- 2 expression. Among 18 subjects with Grade II, 14 (77.78 %) subjects were positive for BCL-2 expression. Reduced frequency of BCL-2 expression was observed with increasing histologic grade (i.e., more in low-grade tumours and less in Grade III), but the difference was statistically not significant.

A differential expression of BCL-2 was observed across different grades of invasive ductal carcinoma. However, the difference was not statistically significant.