Razi Journal of Medical Sciences

Background: Trichoepithelioma (TE) is a benign skin tumor with follicular differentiation, which sometimes is difficult to distinguish clinically and histologically from cutaneous basal cell carcinoma (BCC). An accurate diagnosis of these lesions is essential for effective and appropriate therapeutic decisions. Therefore, several attempts have been made to identify immunohistochemical differences between these entities. The aim of this study was to evaluate the pattern of expression of Her2 protein in cutaneous BCC from TE using immunohistochemistry.

Methods: In this cross sectional study first pilot study was done with 5 cases of BCC and 5 cases of TE. According to the results of pilot study 60 cases including 30 cases of BCC and 30 cases of TE were obtained from archival files of the Pathology Department of Rasoul-e-Akram hospital, Razi Hospital and Danesh pathology laboratory of Tehran. Selected tissue blocks were recut and analyzed. Immunohistochemistry method was used for evaluation of expression pattern of Her2 protein in TE compared to BCC SPSS software and Fisher’s exact test was used for statistical analysis of data.

Results: In current study, percent and intensity of membranous staining of Her2 protein in TE were statically significant from BCC (p<0.0001). In addition percent and intensity of cytoplasmic staining of Her2 protein in BCC were statistically significant from TE (p<0.0001).

Conclusion: Results of this study showed that the pattern of expression of Her2 proteins is different in BCC and TE. Thus pattern of expression of this protein can be helpful in differentiation of BCC and TE.