Figure 1. Discordance of heparanase staining in primary vs metastatic breast cancer.

(A) Immunostaining. Forty-two pairs of primary breast carcinomas and resulting metastases were subjected to immunostaining applying anti-heparanase antibody. Shown are representative photomicrographs of cases in which heparanase staining appeared comparable in the primary and metastatic lesions (p6; upper panels), cases in which heparanase was low in the tumor cells of the primary lesion but appears high in the metastases (p5; second panels), and cases in which heparanase staining was strong in the primary tumor but negative in the resulting metastases (p38; third panel). (B) Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. The survival of patients in which heparanase staining in the primary and metastases appeared similar (Un-changed; n = 26) was compared to patients in which heparanase staining was changed in the primary vs metastases (Changed; n = 16). Note that discordance of heparanase expression correlates with a significant decrease in patient survival (HR 0.035; p = 0.005). Original magnifications: × 100.