PURPOSE: This study was undertaken to investigate X-ray mammographic findings which correlated with histopathologic classification of breast carcinomas. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In 114 cases (113 patients) weeviewed X-ray mammographic findings of breast carcinoma and their histopathologic classification, and the findings were analysed to define mass, calcification, and spiculation. RESULTS: According to histopathologic classifications of breast carcinomas, infiltrating ductal carcinoma was the most common(78.9%). X-rays mammographyrevealed that irregular mass was found in 43.9% of cases, calcification in 47.4 %, and radiating spiculation in75.4%. Mass with spiculation accounted for 41.2%, and mass with calcification and spiculation for 34.2%. A commonfinding of ductal carcinoma in situ was an ill-defined mass with malignant clustered microcalcification. Infiltrating ductal and infiltrating lobular carcinomas showed irregular masses with spiculation and colloid or medullary carcinomas had well-defined masses. CONCLUSION: Mass with spiculation, and mass with calcification and spiculation were common findings of breast carcinoma. The differences in X-ray mammographic findings among each different histopathologic type of breast carcinoma are helpful for differential diagnosis.
Breast Neoplasms* ; Breast* ; Carcinoma, Ductal ; Carcinoma, Intraductal, Noninfiltrating ; Carcinoma, Lobular ; Classification* ; Colloids ; Diagnosis, Differential

Status of margins and the size of the lesion are independent prognostic factors of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). Histologic grading of DCIS and expression of biologic marker also appear to act as prognostic factors. However, DNA ploidy analysis using flow cytometry in the DCIS and atypical ductal hyperplasia (ADH) has been rarely reported, and the biologic behavior of ADH is unknown. We performed immunohistochemical staining and DNA ploidy analysis using flow cytometry on 45 cases of pure DCIS without microinvasion and 34 cases of ADH to compare the expression of biologic markers and DNA ploidy patterns according to the histologic grade of DCIS, to evaluate the usefulness of the Van Nuys classification, and to investigate the biologic behavior of ADH and low grade DCIS. A total of 41.9% of DCIS and 32.1% of ADH were detected mammographically in asymptomatic patients. The most common subtype of the high grade DCIS was comedo type (56.3%), while the low and intermediate grade DCIS were cribriform type. Expression of ER, c-erbB-2 and Ki-67 proliferative index (PI) was significantly associated with nuclear grade and histologic grade of DCIS. Expression of c-erbB-2 was also significantly correlated with presence of necrosis. In low grade DCIS, Ki-67 PI was significantly higher than ADH. A total of 63.6% of DCIS and 70% of ADH were diploidy and 15.9% of DCIS was aneuploidy. There was no aneuploidy in ADH. No significant association was noted between DNA ploidy and histologic grade or nuclear grade. However, in high grade DCIS, the frequency of aneuploidy was high. In conclusion, histologic grading of DCIS employing nuclear grade and necrosis is a useful tool accounting for biologic behavior. High grade DCIS and comedo DCIS impart aggressive biologic behavior and suggest a higher possibility of local recurrence or progression to invasive carcinoma. In the differential diagnosis of ADH and low grade DCIS, the use of Ki-67 PI and DNA ploidy analysis by flow cytometry will be helpful for accurate diagnosis and prediction of biologic behavior.
Aneuploidy ; Biomarkers* ; Breast* ; Carcinoma, Ductal* ; Carcinoma, Intraductal, Noninfiltrating* ; Classification ; Diagnosis ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Diploidy ; DNA* ; Flow Cytometry ; Humans ; Hyperplasia* ; Immunohistochemistry ; Necrosis ; Ploidies* ; Recurrence

Status of margins and the size of the lesion are independent prognostic factors of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). Histologic grading of DCIS and expression of biologic marker also appear to act as prognostic factors. However, DNA ploidy analysis using flow cytometry in the DCIS and atypical ductal hyperplasia (ADH) has been rarely reported, and the biologic behavior of ADH is unknown. We performed immunohistochemical staining and DNA ploidy analysis using flow cytometry on 45 cases of pure DCIS without microinvasion and 34 cases of ADH to compare the expression of biologic markers and DNA ploidy patterns according to the histologic grade of DCIS, to evaluate the usefulness of the Van Nuys classification, and to investigate the biologic behavior of ADH and low grade DCIS. A total of 41.9% of DCIS and 32.1% of ADH were detected mammographically in asymptomatic patients. The most common subtype of the high grade DCIS was comedo type (56.3%), while the low and intermediate grade DCIS were cribriform type. Expression of ER, c-erbB-2 and Ki-67 proliferative index (PI) was significantly associated with nuclear grade and histologic grade of DCIS. Expression of c-erbB-2 was also significantly correlated with presence of necrosis. In low grade DCIS, Ki-67 PI was significantly higher than ADH. A total of 63.6% of DCIS and 70% of ADH were diploidy and 15.9% of DCIS was aneuploidy. There was no aneuploidy in ADH. No significant association was noted between DNA ploidy and histologic grade or nuclear grade. However, in high grade DCIS, the frequency of aneuploidy was high. In conclusion, histologic grading of DCIS employing nuclear grade and necrosis is a useful tool accounting for biologic behavior. High grade DCIS and comedo DCIS impart aggressive biologic behavior and suggest a higher possibility of local recurrence or progression to invasive carcinoma. In the differential diagnosis of ADH and low grade DCIS, the use of Ki-67 PI and DNA ploidy analysis by flow cytometry will be helpful for accurate diagnosis and prediction of biologic behavior.
Aneuploidy ; Biomarkers* ; Breast* ; Carcinoma, Ductal* ; Carcinoma, Intraductal, Noninfiltrating* ; Classification ; Diagnosis ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Diploidy ; DNA* ; Flow Cytometry ; Humans ; Hyperplasia* ; Immunohistochemistry ; Necrosis ; Ploidies* ; Recurrence

A retrospective analysis was performed on 69 follow-up cases of ducal carcinoma in situ(DCIS) treated from Jan. 1981 to Dec. 1995 at Department of Surgery, Seoul National University Hospital. The results are as follows. The mean age was 45.4 years that ranged from 28 to 68. The proportion of DCIS to breast cancer was increased from 1.3% to 7.2% for 15 years. Clinical presentations of DCIS were mass, nipple discharge and suspicious mammographic findings. Patients presenting mass were decreased, while mammographically detected DCIS were increased. In 49.3% of cases, the tumor size was smaller than 2cm and in 21.3% of the cases, the tumor was not palpable. Treatment modality was changed to more conservative procedures. All of the patients survived well without local recurrence or distant metastasis for a mean follow-up of 36.3 months(range 7 to 146). Histopathologic review was also performed on 52 cases of which paraffin blocks were saved, by one pathologist and diagnosis was confirmed. Pure DCIS composed 16 cases(30.8%), and DCIS with microinvasion was 36 cases(69.2%). Clinical presentation of DCIS, such as age, nipple discharge, calcification on mammography and mass size were not related to the microinvasion, but mass palpability was related to microinvasion(p=0.018). There was no histopathologic features to predict progression to invasive carcinoma, regardless of comedo type, histologic grade and nuclear grade. The expression of cathepsin-D, nm23, p53 and c-erbB-2 protein, was also evaluated using immunohistochemical methods. The relationship between expression of immunohistochemical antibodies and prognostic variables such as tumor size, histologic grade, nuclear grade, and microinvasion was assessed. The overexpression of c-erbB-2 protein was associated with lower nuclear grade(p=0.033), and a strong correlation was seen between tumor size and cathepsin-D and p53 protein(p=0.035, p=0.016). In this study, we conclude that the fine classification and analysis of DCIS subtype, not only by histopathologic but also by immunohistochemical study can be helpful to predict biological behaviour of DCIS and decide the modality of treatment.
Antibodies ; Breast ; Breast Neoplasms ; Carcinoma in Situ* ; Carcinoma, Intraductal, Noninfiltrating ; Classification ; Diagnosis ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Mammography ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Nipples ; Paraffin ; Receptor, erbB-2 ; Recurrence ; Retrospective Studies ; Seoul

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to evaluate the degree of inter- and intraobserver agreement when characterizing breast abnormalities using the Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS)-ultrasound (US) lexicon, as defined by the American College of Radiology (ACR). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two hundred ninety three female patients with 314 lesions underwent US-guided biopsies at one facility during a two-year period. Static sonographic images of each breast lesion were acquired and reviewed by four radiologists with expertise in breast imaging. Each radiologist independently evaluated all cases and described the mass according to BI-RADS-US. To assess intraobserver variability, one of the four radiologists reassessed all of the cases one month after the initial evaluation. Inter- and intraobserver variabilities were determined using Cohen's kappa (k) statistics. RESULTS: The greatest degree of reliability for a descriptor was found for mass orientation (k = 0.61) and the least concordance of fair was found for the mass margin (k = 0.32) and echo pattern (k = 0.36). Others descriptive terms: shape, lesion boundary and posterior features (k = 0.42, k = 0.55 and k = 0.53, respectively) and the final assessment (k = 0.51) demonstrated only moderate levels of agreement. A substantial degree of intraobserver agreement was found when classifying all morphologic features: shape, orientation, margin, lesion boundary, echo pattern and posterior feature (k = 0.73, k = 0.68, k = 0.64, 0.68, k = 0.65 and k = 0.64, respectively) and rendering final assessments (k = 0.65). CONCLUSION: Although BI-RADS-US was created to achieve a consensus among radiologists when describing breast abnormalities, our study shows substantial intraobserver agreement but only moderate interobserver agreement in the mass description and final assessment of breast abnormalities according to its use. A better agreement will ultimately require specialized education, as well as self-auditing practice tests.
Adenocarcinoma/classification/*diagnosis ; Adenocarcinoma, Mucinous/classification/*diagnosis ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Biopsy ; Breast Neoplasms/classification/*diagnosis ; Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast/classification/*diagnosis ; Carcinoma, Intraductal, Noninfiltrating/classification/*diagnosis ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Observer Variation ; Predictive Value of Tests ; Radiology ; Reproducibility of Results ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Societies, Medical ; Terminology as Topic ; Ultrasonography, Doppler, Color/statistics & numerical data ; Ultrasonography, Mammary/*statistics & numerical data

BACKGROUND: In the past, the diagnosis of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) was rare, but today the incidence of DCIS has become much more frequent, particularly in patients who underwent mammographic screening. The management of patients with DCIS has become a major clinical dilemma. It has become increasingly difficult to justify the routine use of mastectomy for patients with DCIS, because its natural history is uncertain and breast-conserving therapy (BCT) is currently used for the treatment of many patients with invasive breast cancer. METHODS: To investigate the incidence, clinicopathologic features and the outcome of treatment of DCIS and microinvasive carcinoma (MIC), the medical records and pathology slides of 91 patients with DCIS and MIC who had been treated at KCCH between 1983 and 1996 were reviewed retrospectively. Median follow-up period was 69.4 (4-158) months. RESULT: The results were as follewd; 1) The inciednce was 2.72% (91/3,343) and had been increasing (2.1% in 1980s and 3.3% 1990s). 2) The mean age was 44.2 years and peak age group was fifth decade. 3) The most common clinical features was a palpable mass (69%), followed by nipple discharge, MMG abnormality and Paget's disease in decreasing order of frequency. 4) According to the pathologic classification of Schwartz, comedo type was the most common (32%), followed by cribriform (23%), papillay (20%), mixed (11%), solid (9%) and micropapillary type (5%), 5) There were 58 cases (69%) of pure DCIS and 16 cases (17.5%) of MIC. In 17 case (18.5%) the presence of microinvasion was equivocal or could not be assessed. 6) There were no significant differences between DCIS and MIC in terms of mean age (44.5 years vs 43.8 years), mean tumor size (2.15 cm vs 2.25 cm), the frequency of comedo type (29% vs 36%), lymph node metastasis (0% vs 6%) and multicentricity (3.3% vs 3.0%). However, the palpable mass was more common in MIC than DCIS (82% vs 62%, p<0.05). 7) 75 patients (82%) were treated with mastectomy and 16 patients were treated with breast conserving surgery. 8) Bedsides 2 cases of systemic recurrence among MIC, there was no case of recurrence or disease-associated death during the period of follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of DCIS and MIC showed increasing tendency primarily due to the increasing use of screening mammography. Even though the rates of BCT has been increasing, MRM was still the most common procedure for the treatment of DCIS and MIC. The outcome of treatment, in terms of recurrence or survival, was very excellent and almost the same for both groups of pure DCIS and MIC. More long-term follow-up and multicenter study seems to be neccessary to identify the differences in clinical features and outcome between pure DCIS and MIC in Korea.
Breast Neoplasms ; Breast* ; Carcinoma, Intraductal, Noninfiltrating ; Classification ; Diagnosis ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Incidence ; Korea ; Lymph Nodes ; Mammography ; Mass Screening ; Mastectomy ; Mastectomy, Segmental ; Medical Records ; Natural History ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Nipples ; Pathology ; Recurrence ; Retrospective Studies

Biopsy, Needle ; Breast ; pathology ; Breast Neoplasms ; classification ; metabolism ; pathology ; Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast ; metabolism ; pathology ; Carcinoma, Intraductal, Noninfiltrating ; metabolism ; pathology ; Carcinoma, Papillary ; metabolism ; pathology ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Female ; Humans ; Hyperplasia ; Keratin-14 ; metabolism ; Keratin-5 ; metabolism ; Keratin-6 ; metabolism ; Membrane Proteins ; metabolism ; Papilloma, Intraductal ; metabolism ; pathology ; Receptors, Estrogen ; metabolism

Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal ; therapeutic use ; Breast Neoplasms ; classification ; drug therapy ; pathology ; surgery ; Carcinoma in Situ ; drug therapy ; pathology ; surgery ; Carcinoma, Intraductal, Noninfiltrating ; drug therapy ; pathology ; surgery ; Carcinoma, Lobular ; drug therapy ; pathology ; surgery ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Female ; Humans ; Mastectomy ; Precancerous Conditions ; drug therapy ; pathology ; surgery ; Tamoxifen ; therapeutic use