CORRELATION OF NUCLEAR GRADING AND ANGIOGENESIS IN BREAST MALIGNANCY

Neoplasms constitute the most important lesions of the breast. Commonest are the neoplasms arising from the epithelial component, which constitute the glandular element of the breast. The most common type of carcinoma is inltrative ductal carcinoma followed by lobular carcinoma and then other smaller groups. Many prognostic factors have been identied in breast carcinoma. The grading of breast carcinomas is one of the most useful prognostic indicators. When combined with histological tumour type and race of the patient, nuclear grade is a most powerful predictor of tumour aggressiveness. Tumour angiogenesis as a prognostic marker is a latest issue. A number of studies have found that highly vascular carcinomas have a poorer prognosis than those of low vascularity. In present study an attempt has been made to correlate nuclear grading with microvessel density due to angiogenesis so as to develop a new criterion for assessing the prognosis of different histomorphological types of carcinoma breast. Nuclear grading of the lesions was done according to the Nottingham modication of Bloom Richardson system (1991). All sections were assessed for angiogenesis by calculating MVD. The MVD increased from grade I to grade II to grade III lesions. On statistical analysis there was a positive high correlation between nuclear grade and microvessel density. Present study reveals that microvessel density correlate positively with nuclear grade.