Immunohistological localization of beta-HCG in breast carcinomas

As reports about HCG positivity in serum or tissue of patients with breast cancer show divergent results, the present investigation was undertaken to study the frequency of positive staining for beta-HCG in breast cancer tissue and to correlate the staining pattern with the histology of the tumor and stage of disease. With the immunoperoxidase technique we studied 129 cases of breast carcinomas. We obtained a positive staining for beta-HCG in 12%. However, in most of the tumors only very few cells contained beta-HCG. Morphologically the positive cells could not be distinguished from beta-HCG-negative cells. We conclude from our data that until now the beta-HCG staining provides no immediate useful information for the management of patients.