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

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common type of cancer among women world wide and leading cause of cancer related deaths. Distant metastases are responsible for the majority of cancer related deaths. Epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) is defined by the loss of epithelial characters and acquisition of mesenchymal phenotype. Through EMT, tumor cells acquire fibroblast like properties and exhibit increased motility, helping the escape of tumor cells from the primary tumors and metastasis. Fibronectin (FN) is an extracellular matrix glycoprotein constituting an important part of the tumor associated stroma. It is also considered a mesenchymal marker of EMT. Investigation of immunohistochemical expression of FN by epithelial and stromal cells of female BC and correlation of this expression with the clinico pathological aspects of the tumors. 50 formalin fixed paraffin embedded BC tissue sections were randomly collected. All the available data were collected from the patients{u2019} reports. The paraffin blocks were sectioned, stained with hematoxylin and eosin stains for histologic evaluation. Additional sections were immunostained with FN. Fibronectin expression was studied separately in the tumor cells and tumor stroma

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