Poor prognostic value of proliferating cell nuclear antigen labelling index in breast carcinoma.

AIM To investigate the association between proliferating cell nuclear antigen immunostaining and various clinicopathological variables, and its prognostic value in breast carcinoma. METHODS A monoclonal antibody PC10 was applied to formalin fixed, paraffin wax embedded tissue in 144 cases of primary breast cancer. PCNA immunostaining was scored by counting 1000 cells; the percentage of positive stained cells was recorded as the PCNA labelling index (PCNA-LI). RESULTS The PCNA-LI varied from 0-77% with a mean of 18%. When tumours were separated on the basis of the mean value, 93 had a low PCNA-LI of less or equal than 18% and 47 a high PCNA-LI of more than 18%. There was no significant correlation between PCNA-LI and all prognostic factors included in this study. Moreover, PCNA-LI failed to show any prognostic value for overall and disease free survival. CONCLUSION PCNA immunostaining is not correlated with clinicopathological variables and patient survival in breast cancer.