Abstract
Objective: This study investigated the expression of 4 receptors in breast cancer tissues in Sudanese patients. Material and methods: Total 81 cancerous breast tissues and 50 normal breast tissues were obtained from the Radiation and Isotope Center in Khartoum (RICK). The expression of human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER-2), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) was investigated in the normal and cancerous breast tissues using the immunohistochemistry technique. The statistical correlation between the expression of the different proteins and the age and grade was also investigated. Results: The expression of ER and PR was positive in all the normal breast tissues while they were positive in 41(50.6%) and 28 (34.6%) of the cancerous tissues respectively. The staining of the HER-2 and VEGF was negative in all the normal breast tissues and they were positive in 57 (70.4%) and 32 (39.5%) of the cancerous tissues respectively. Most of the positive HER-2, VEGF, ER and PR samples are distributed between grade II and grade III with significant negative correlations. The majority of the positive cases for all the studied proteins were less than 64 years of age. There was an insignificant negative or positive correlation between the different studied proteins and the tumor grade. Conclusion: This study registered that HER-2 was positive in 70.4% of breast cancer tissues from Sudanese patients.