Breast carcinoma—rare types: review of the literature

Abstract

Invasive breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease in its presentation, pathological classification and clinical course. However, there are more than a dozen variants which are less common but still very well defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) classification. The rarity of many of these neoplasms does not allow large or randomized studies to define the optimal treatment. Many of the descriptions of these cancers are from case reports and small series. Our review brings updated information on 16 epithelial subtypes as classified by the WHO system with a very concise histopathology description and parameters helpful in the clinic. The aim of our review is to provide a tool for breast cancer caregivers which will enable a better understanding of the disease and its optimal approach to therapy. This may also stand as a clinical framework for a future understanding of these rarer breast cancers when gene analysis work is reported.

Primary Neuroendocrine Tumor of Breast: Report of a Rare Case with Review of Literature

“…As in our case all these markers are positive. NEBC (Neuro Endocrine Breast Carcinoma) are more likely to be ER/PR positive and HER-2 negative [13,14]. However, in our case tumor cells is non-reactive for estrogen and progesterone receptors ( Figure 5).…”

“…According to the WHO, there are three histologic categories of breast NETs (solid carcinoid-like, large cell-type, and small cell-type) [10]. The growth of cells should be in solid sheets or insular pattern, presence of stippled chromatin and low grade cytological features [13]. A histopathological examination of our patient made us consider the presence of neuroendocrine differentiation because the sections of breast nodule shows infiltrating tumor arranged in sheets and nests of atypical cells separated by fibrous bands and round to oval vesicular nuclei with powdery chromatin was seen.…”

Intracyctic Papillary Carcinoma of the Breast: Report of a Rare Case and Literature Review

“…The prognosis of this type of cancers is generally better than other types of ductal carcinomas because of the slow growing nature of the tumor (2). Due to the rarity of papillary breast cancer, it does not allow large or randomized studies to define an optimal approach (11). Reporting this case was interesting because of the rarity of these kinds of breast tumors and coexistences of multiple risk factors she has had.…”

Primary Neuroendocrine Carcinoma of the Breast – A Review

“…However, there are a few recent reports of patients with early small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma who have responded well to adjuvant therapy (13). Other recent reports also suggest a good prognosis for these tumours (1,16). Studies with larger numbers and long term follow up data are needed to resolve this question.…”

“…Neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC) of the breast is a rare tumour accounting for less than 0.5% of primary breast cancers (1).It was first described in 1963 by Feyrter et al (2). PrimaryNEC of the breast is thought to arise from endocrine differentiation of a breast carcinoma rather than from pre-existing endocrine cells in the breast (3).…”