Abstract

Background: Breast cancer remains one of the most prevalent cancers affecting women worldwide, with early detection and accurate biomarker evaluation playing pivotal roles in prognosis and treatment planning. Immunohistochemical analysis of biomarkers such as Estrogen Receptor (ER), Progesterone Receptor (PR), and Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2 (HER-2/neu) on tissue samples is standard practice. However, the use of fine needle aspiration (FNA) cytology as a minimally invasive method for evaluating these biomarkers is gaining attention for its potential diagnostic utility and advantages. Aims and objectives of this study were to study the expression of biomarkers ER, PR, HER2 in FNAC smears of breast carcinoma and core needle biopsy, to evaluate whether there is a concordance or discordance in expression of these biomarkers in FNAC smears as compared to that of core needle biopsy and to assess the utility of FNAC in preoperative assessment of biomarker status in breast carcinoma. Methods: It was a hospital based prospective study. Forty cases of breast carcinoma of which both FNAC and core needle biopsy were performed were included in our study. Results: We studied 40 patients of histopathologically proven Breast Carcinoma. When compared to Immunohistochemistry, there was 82.5% diagnostic accuracy of Immunocytochemistry (ICC) done on FNAC for ER. For PR and HER2 diagnostic accuracy of ICC was 87.5% and 77.5% respectively.

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