Immunohistochemical detection of estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 in formalin-fixed breast carcinoma cell block preparations: correlation of results to corresponding tissue block (needle core and excision) samples.

Evaluation of ER, PR and Her 2 are routinely performed on breast carcinomas. For accurate detection of these markers, compliance with the ASCO/CAP guidelines is recommended. Our previous study showed that alcohol fixation did not affect ER results when alcohol-fixed cell block (CB) sections were compared to formalin-fixed tissue sections, while PR and Her2 showed less concordance. The aim of this study was to evaluate and to compare ER, PR and Her2 IHC results on formalin-fixed CB sections to those observed on subsequent surgical (needle core or resection) specimens (SS). Fifty cases of formalin fixed CB samples obtained from primary (18%) and metastatic (82%) breast carcinomas were studied, all of which had subsequent SS available. ER, PR, and Her2 IHC studies were done on all samples and results were compared. ER results on formalin-fixed CB samples showed excellent correlation with SS (correlation coefficient cc = 0.82). While there was minimal improvement in PR results (cc = 0.433), Her2 detection did not improve by formalin fixation (cc = 0.439). Formalin fixation for CB preparations does not significantly improve the already good detection of ER positive breast tumors. The concordance rate in PR and IHC results between formalin-fixed CB and SS samples showed improvement as compared with the alcohol-fixed CB results. However, there was no improvement in detection of Her2 overexpression by using formalin fixation on cytology specimens.