TISSUE INHIBITOR OF

Tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase- (TIMP-) is a natural inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinas-es (MMPs). Aim of this study was to assess the immunohistochemical expression of TIMP- in invasive breast carcinomas, and to examine its association with classical clinico-pathological pa-rameters, oestrogen receptor, progesterone receptor and Her-/neu protein expression. Immuno-histochemistry was used to determine the expression of TIMP- on paraffi n-embedded breast tissue specimens- with invasive ductal carcinoma, with invasive lobular carcinoma, and specimens from patients with fi brocystic breast disease. TIMP- protein was immunodetected in the carcinoma cells, fi broblasts and infl ammatory cells of the stroma in ,, ,, and , of cases, respectively. TIMP- protein expression in carcinoma cells showed positive correlation with TIMP- protein expression in peritumoural fi broblasts (p=,). Positive peritumoural fi-broblast TIMP- expression was associated with histological tumour type with higher frequency in ductal carcinomas (p=,). Negative association was found between TIMP- protein expres-sion in carcinoma cells and HER-/neu nuclear staining (p=,). TIMP- may be particularly useful as a predictive marker in breast carcinoma when evaluated along with HER-/neu protein being a promising indicator of favourable prognosis in breast carcinoma. KEY WORDS: breast carcinoma, tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-, immunohistochemistry IMMUNOHISTOCHEMICA