Role of proliferative markers in breast lesions

Carcinoma of breast is a leading cause of death in women throughout the world. Difficulty in diagnosis occurs in routine Hematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) stained sections to differentiate premalignant lesions like epitheliosis and malignant lesions like carcinoma in situ which may affect prognosis. Our study was done to assess the role of proliferative markers in this field. In this study, total 66 cases of different breast lesions were studied by H&E stained sections as well as proliferative markers like silver staining nucleolar organizer region (AgNOR) and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA). Statistically significant differences found in expression of proliferative markers between most of them. Study of proliferative markers help in the proper diagnosis of different breast lesions which lies in the grey zone on routine histopathology.