European Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine

Introduction: Treatment for breast cancer is based on the expression of the immunomarkers such as ER, PR and HER2/neu. Cases which are negative to all the three immunomarkers, are called Triple Negative Breast Cancers (TNBC) and they have a poor prognosis. Recent studies have shown that some of the TNBCs express cytokeratins CK 5/6 (subcategorizing them as basal-like breast cancers) and these respond well to anthracycline-based chemotherapy. Aim and Objectives: The purpose of this study was to look at the expression of basal cytokeratins CK 5/6 in breast carcinomas from our centre and see how it correlated with histological type, grade, size, clinical characteristics, and ER, PR, and HER2/neu status. Methods: Our research is a retrospective one. Female breast carcinomas diagnosed between the January 2022 to January 2023 at Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital, Bihar. A few instances were excluded because there was insufficient clinical information or blocks were unavailable. Trucut biopsies were not considered. Results: 29 (29.0%) of the 100 patients tested positive for Cytokeratin. The number of Cytokeratin positive patients was greatest in the 41-50 age group, followed by the 51-60 age group. It is lowest at the extremes of age. In our investigation, no correlation was found between patient age and Cytokeratin 5/6 expression. Conclusion: We conclude that CK 5/6 should be used routinely in all cases of Triple Negative Breast Carcinomas because they aid in identifying the basal-like subtype without depending on expensive molecular genetics testing. Despite the dismal prognosis, this group responds well to platinum and anthracycline-based chemotherapy.