Assessment of Cytokeratin Expression in Carcinoma Breast

BACKGROUND Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in females and an important cause of cancer deaths worldwide. With advances in oncopathology, breast cancers are now diagnosed and treated at a molecular level. To distinguish and subdivide the type of cancer with the suitable markers and to foresee its prognosis and therapeutic approach, cytokeratin can be used which is prognostic tumour marker and has a number of different advantages as it is an important IHC marker, cytokeratin (Ck) is epithelial intermediate filament, which is expressed in a tissue specific manner. Expression of the intermediate filaments, predominantly cytokeratins (Ck) reflects the epithelial cell type. In breast, the luminal epithelial cells express CK 8 / 18, CK 7 and CK 19, while basal cell expresses CK 5 / 6, CK 14 and CK 17. Bloom Richardson grading (BR) system has a powerful prognostic value. It is also incorporated in the algorithm for the determination in the use of adjuvant chemotherapy. Moreover, as a tumour marker cytokeratin can accurately predict disease status as it is easy, inexpensive and a reliable tool for efficient management. CK and BR grading can be used as cost effective diagnostic tools in hormone positive breast carcinoma for diagnosis as well as treatment. Very early detection of breast cancer reduces the mortality and morbidity.