IntroductionBreast cancer, which is the most diagnosed cancer among women, is a heterogeneous disease, consisting of numerous, distinct clinical and biological features. Breast cancer is a collection of different diseases with different risk factors, clinical presentations, pathological features, and treatment responses and outcomes. In order to classify different breast cancers, several parameters have been used. Tumor grade, Tumor Node Metastasis (TNM) staging, histological classification, existence of axillary lymph node metastasis, immunohistochemical biomarker characterization, and molecular profiling are the parameters used for classification of breast tumors (1).Histological type is derived from the growth pattern of the breast tumors. Specific morphological and cytological patterns are associated with distinctive clinical presentations and/or outcomes (2). The most common type of breast cancer is an invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC). In the last version of the World Health Organization classification, at least 17 distinct histological special types have been recognised and specialized types account for up to 25% of all breast cancers (3). Special or rare breast tumor terminology was first described in the study of Weigelt B. et al. (2). Although new treatment protocols depend on molecular findings, histological groups still carry important clinical implications (3). As the prevalence of special type breast cancer is low, not as many studies are concerned with the clinical and molecular characteristics of special type breast cancer (4). In this study, we aimed to describe the clinical features of special type breast cancer in our center. Eur J Breast Health 2018; 14: 17-22 DOI: 10.5152/ejbh.2017.3219 17 ABSTRACT Objective: Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease with different histological types. Ductal breast cancer constitutes the vast majority of the breast cancers. However limited data are present in the rest of breast cancers called special or rare type breast cancers. Here in this study, we tried to describe the clinical features of special type breast cancers in our center.
Characteristics of Special Type Breast Tumors in Our Center
Materials and Methods:Retrospective descriptive study was performed in Kocaeli University School of Medicine, Department of General Surgery between January 2000 and January 2016. Women diagnosed with primary breast cancer other than ductal carcinoma were included to the study. In total, 101 patients were evaluated according to histologic types, molecular types, Tumor Node Metastasis (TNM) stages, and grades. Survival of the patients was also evaluated.Results: Medullary and metaplastic types showed basal type; tubular, mucinous, micropapillary carcinoma, cribriform, lobular and apocrine tumors showed luminal type molecular pattern. Neither the existence of ductal carcinoma nor any histologic types had any effects on survival. Apocrine tumors were presented in younger ages.
Conclusion:Histologic types of breast cancer are closely related with the molecular types of t...