Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Medicine - Department of Pathology

Background: Breast cancer (BC) is the commonest type of cancer among women world-wide and a leading cause of cancer related deaths. Vitamin D has been emerging as a potential treatment for cancer, as it has been demonstrated that it modulates proliferation, invasion and metastasis, among other cancers. It acts mostly through the Vitamin D receptor (VDR). The vitamin D3 receptor is a ligand-dependent transcription factor implicated in regulation of cell cycle, differentiation and apoptosis of both normal and transformed cells derived from mammary gland. The induction of cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in breast cancer cells by 1,25 (OH) 2D3 and other VDR agonists is dependent on the expression of nuclear VDR. Objectives: Detection of immunohistochemical (IHC) expression of VDR by tumor cells in female breast cancer and correlation of this expression with the clinico-pathologic parameters of the tumors. Material and methods: Fifty formalin fixed paraffin embedded BC tissue sections were randomly picked up. All the available data were collected from the patients' reports. The paraffin blocks were sectioned and stained with hematoxylin and eosin for histologic evaluation. Additional sections were immunostained with VDR and their expression was investigated in tumor cells. Results: VDR expression was detected in 68% of cases and showed a statistically significant correlation with tumor grade (P value <0.001), T stage (P value = 0.001), N stage (P value <0.001), M stage (P value = 0.044), Ki67 index (P value <0.001) and with perineural invasion (P value = 0.050)

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