Immunohistochemical Pattern of Breast Cancer in Maiduguri, Borno State

Background: Breast cancer is one of the most common cancer affecting women in Nigeria, with a very high morbidity and mortality rate if the diagnosis is delayed. It is common among women in both developed and developing countries of the world.

Objectives: This is carried out to determine the immunohistochemical and histopathological patterns of breast cancer in Maiduguri.

Methodology: One hundred and fifty two cases of female breast cancer were retrieved from the archive of Department of Histopathology, University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital. ER, PR and HER2 expression was assessed using immunohistochemical staining.

Results: Thirty one of the 152 cases were positive for either one or two of the hormonal antigen,while 121 (79.6%) were completely negative for any of the hormonal antigen, of the 31 positive cases, oestrogenreceptors were detected in 14 (45.2%) cases, progesterone were detected in 10 (32.2%) of the cancer cases while HER 2 were detected in 7 (22.6%). The mean age of all the subjects with breast cancer is 47.6% with highest prevalence at the age range of 32 – 58.Invasive ductal carcinoma account for 88.2% of the total breast cancer followed by invasive lobular carcinoma with 4.0%.

Conclusion: From this study most cases of breast cancer in this environment are hormone receptor negative as found in most part of African continent in contrast to higher number of hormone receptor positive cases in most western and Arabian countries.