World Journal of Surgical Oncology (Jun 2010)

The clinical behavior of mixed ductal/lobular carcinoma of the breast: a clinicopathologic analysis

  • Dunnington Gary,
  • Banisaeed Nassim,
  • Paruchuri Lakshmi P,
  • Suryadevara Aparna,
  • Rao Krishna A

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/1477-7819-8-51
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8, no. 1
p. 51

Abstract

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Abstract Background To date, the clinical presentation and prognosis of mixed ductal/lobular mammary carcinomas has not been well studied, and little is known about the outcome of this entity. Thus, best management practices remain undetermined due to a dearth of knowledge on this topic. Methods In this paper, we present a clinicopathologic analysis of patients at our institution with this entity and compare them to age-matched controls with purely invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) and historical data from patients with purely lobular carcinoma and also stain-available tumor specimens for E-cadherin. We have obtained 100 cases of ductal and 50 cases of mixed ductal/lobular breast carcinoma. Results Clinically, the behavior of mixed ductal/lobular tumors seemed to demonstrate some important differences from their ductal counterparts, particularly a lower rate of metastatic spread but with a much higher rate of second primary breast cancers. Conclusions Our data suggests that mixed ductal/lobular carcinomas are a distinct clinicopathologic entity incorporating some features of both lobular and ductal carcinomas and representing a pleomorphic variant of IDC.