Abstract

Background
Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) is a transmembranous glycoprotein belongs to Erb B family receptor of tyrosine kinases. EGFR overexpression is associated with the development of wide variety of tumors. It’s believed that EGFR overexpression in primary breast carcinoma has been linked to aggressive Basal like phenotype and reflect poor prognosis.
Aim of the study
The study aims to provide a correlation between immunohistochemical EGFR overexpression in invasive breast carcinoma with patient’s age, histological type, tumor grade and molecular subtype
Patients and method
This cross sectional prospective study was carried out in Basrah. The data collected in the period from October 2020 through November 2021.
Tissue sections submitted to routine heamatoxylin and eosin stain. Then immunohistochemical staining for molecular classification and EGFR marker was performed by using primary monoclonal anti-EGFR antibody.
Results
Fifty three cases of invasive breast carcinoma were collected with mean age of 56.32. Fifty cases diagnosed as invasive ductal carcinoma. Forty nine cases were graded as grade 2. Nineteen case (35%) were classified as Luminal A, (32%) classified as Luminal B1 and (13.2%) as Luminal B2. Basal like and HER2 overexpression subtypes constitute (9.4%) of cases each. Twenty eight (52.83%) cases showed EGFR overexpression with a mean age of 55.86.
Conclusion
EGFR overexpression showed no significant relationship with age or molecular subtypes of breast carcinoma. The accuracy of IHC technique has failed in precisely detecting EGFR overexpression. It is recommended to pair the mentioned technique with other confirmatory techniques to increase detection yield.