HER2-positive breast cancer patients: correlation between mammographic and pathological findings

Abstract

Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive breast cancers represent a highly aggressive breast cancer subtype and are associated with a worse prognosis. This study was designed to investigate the mammography finding of HER2-positive breast cancer and to compare the results with the characteristics of HER2-negative breast cancer patients. From January 2010 to October 2011, mammography findings of 65 patients with pathologically confirmed HER2-positive breast cancers (n = 22) or HER2-negative breast cancers (n = 43) were retrospectively reviewed. The authors also reviewed pathological reports for information on the histological type and differentiation grade. Among the two types of breast cancer patients, estrogen receptor-negative/PR-negative/HER2-positive breast cancer patients most commonly had associated calcifications (18 of 22) on mammography. On mammography, cases with a cluster of calcifications usually were presented as pleomorphic calcifications (12 of 20) and branching calcifications (4 of 20). Patients with HER2-positive breast cancers showed a histological grade II. HER2-positive breast cancer patients usually had ductal invasive carcinoma (17 of 22). Moreover, postmenopausal patients showed a significantly higher frequency of HER2-positive tumours. Our results suggest that the imaging findings might be useful in diagnosing HER2-positive breast cancer patients.

BI-RADS 3-5 microcalcifications: prediction of lymph node metastasis of breast cancer

“…If it is possible to predict the LN metastasis based on the patterns of mammographically detected calcifications, this information will be essential for clinical decision-making [29]. The multivariate analysis in our study demonstrates that the clinicopathological and imaging parameters of infiltrating ductal carcinoma, which consisted of three selected features (age, tumor size and Feature E), were statistically significant independent predictors.…”

BI-RADS 3-5 microcalcifications can preoperatively predict breast cancer HER2 and Luminal a molecular subtype

“…Tumors of the HER-2 enriched subtype are often aggressive and recalcitrant to treatment [13]. Although fluorescent in situ hybridization is considered to be the gold standard for detection of HER-2 gene amplification in cases with ambiguous IHC, it presents a high cost barrier because of the specialized equipment and technical expertise needed to process the sample [17, 18].…”

“…The ability to predict molecular subtype reliably based on mammography findings would be helpful for treatment planning [13]. To the best of our knowledge, there is no literature that has determined whether a calcification features would enable superior prediction of breast cancer molecular subtype in invasive ductal carcinoma of breast.…”

The methods of breast tumour detection

“…1 Međutim za postavljanje egzaktne dijagnoze potreban je pregled suspektnog tkiva pod mikroskopom. U tu svrhu danas se upotrebljavaju dvije metode: 2 1. citološka obrada iscjetka, tj. aspirata dojke i punkcijska biopsija; 2. intraoperativna i hitna biopsija s histološkom obradom smrznutog preparata.Prvi je način koristan za postavljanje dijagnoze, dok je za izbor terapije bitan drugi način, tj.…”

“…2,14 Magnetna rezonanca Magnetna rezonanca( MRI): Magnetna rezonanca je noviji dijagnostički postupak u kojem se ne primjenjuju rendgenske zrake, već se temelji na rezonanciji vodikovih jona u jakom magnetnom polju. 15 Dobivena slika omogućuje visoku diferecijaciju mekotkivnih struktura i krvnih žila znatno bolju od CT-a, daje bolje podatke o položaju tumora, proširenosti, granici između zdravog i bolesnog tkiva te prirode tumora.…”