Immunohistochemical Detection of Epithelial Membrane Antigen in Prostate Tumors among Sudanese Patients

Abstract

This is an analytical retrospective case control hospital based study conducted in Omdurman hospital during the period from October 2016 to February 2017. The study aimed to detect EMA expression in prostate tumors using immunohistochemistry. Forty paraffin embedded blocks previously diagnosed as prostate tumors were collected. Samples included 30(75%) malignant tumors (Adenocarcinomas) and 10 (25%) benign tumors samples. The patient's age ranged between 50 and 90 years with a mean age of 69 years, most patients were younger than 60 years representing 30 (75%) and the remaining 10 (25%) were elder than 60 years. One section of 4 micrometer thickness was cut from each paraffin block by rotary microtome and stained by immunohistochemical method (avidin- biotin technique) for detection of EMA. Data collected from patients files and results obtained were analyzed using SPSS computer program. Immunohistochemical expression of EMA was revealed positive expression in 21/30 samples and negative results in 9/30 samples in malignant tumors, while most of the benign tumors (8/10) showed negative results and 2/10 showed positive expression, with significant statistical association between EMA cytoplasmic expression and histopathological diagnosis of prostate tumors (P. value =0.017). Positive EMA cytoplasmic expression was found to be common among poorly differentiated cancers which represent 17 (81%) cases and less common in well and moderately differentiated cancers with frequencies of 1 (4.5%) case and 3 (14.5%) cases respectively. Moderately and poorly differentiated cancers showed negative expression with frequencies of 6 (66.6%) and 3 (33.4%) cases respectively, while no expression was found in well differentiated cancers, hence, there was a significant statistical relation between EMA cytoplasmic expression and cancer grade ( P. value =0.015). This study concludes that EMA cytoplasmic expression is help in differentiation between benign and malignant prostate tumors and also associated with cancer grade.