immunohistochemical (IHC) assessment of these markers was performed on paraffin embedded sections of the core and excision specimens, using standard IHC techniques and MCF7, HCT116 and H292 cells as controls. For maspin we used primary mouse monoclonal antibody (Clone-G167-70,BD Pharmingen, San Jose, California), dilution 1:200; for COX-2, primary mouse monoclonal antibody (Clone-CX-294, Dako , Denmark), dilution 1:100-; and for Ki67, primary mouse monoclonal antibody (Clone-MIB-1, Dako, Denmark), dilution 1:100- antigen. Dako Envision Plus system HRP labeled polymer for 20 min at 37°C was used as the detection system. Scoring was performed on DCIS lesions only, with manual counting of positively stained DCIS cells. The Ki67 LI was assessed on an average of 300 DCIS cells at 40X magnification. The H score system (Score range: 0-300) was used for COX-2 and maspin markers by a single observer who was blinded to treatment status, with random verification of 20% of slides by a pathologist (PK) [21 (link)].