Research Article Morphological Aspects and Immunophenotypic Profiles of Mammary Carcinomas in Benign-Mixed Tumors of Female Dogs

Copyright © 2012 Gustavo Meirelles Ribeiro et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Carcinoma in benign-mixed tumor (CBMT) is common in the female canine mammary gland and comprises malignant epithelial between benign mesenchymal elements. This study investigated the morphological aspects of 29 CBMT and their immunophenotypical profiles, by using an immunohistochemistry panel based on five molecular markers—estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), cytokeratin 5 (CK5), and human epidermal growth factor receptor 1 (EGFR). From these, CBMT was classified into four subtypes: luminal A, luminal B, HER2-like, basal-like, and normal. “In situ ” and invasive carcinomatous components were analyzed and compared. Histological grade I carcinoma was observed in 16 cases (55.2%) of the tumors analyzed, grade II in 10 cases (34.5%), and grade III in three cases (10.3%). The invasive carcinomatous component has shown, more frequently, luminal A (12/29 cases, 41.4%), followed by basal-like phenotype (8/29 cases, 27.6%). There was high concordance between immunophenotypical profiles of the in situ and invasive carcinomatous components (kappa coefficient = 0.816, P < 0.001). We concluded that CBMT predominantly has features of low-grade neoplasm