J Korean Med Sci.  2010 Mar;25(3):361-368. 10.3346/jkms.2010.25.3.361.

Clinicopathological Characteristics of Mucinous Carcinoma of the Breast in Korea: Comparison with Invasive Ductal Carcinoma-Not Otherwise Specified

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Surgery, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. bwpark@yuhs.ac
  • 2Department of Pathology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
  • 3Department of Surgery, Pochon CHA University College of Medicine, Seongnam, Korea.

Abstract

Clinicopathological characteristics and prognostic factors of mucinous carcinoma (MC) were compared with invasive ductal carcinoma-not otherwise specified (IDC-NOS). Clinicopathological characteristics and survivals of 104 MC patients were retrospectively reviewed and compared with those of 3,936 IDC-NOS. The median age at diagnosis was 45 yr in MC and 47 yr in IDC-NOS, respectively. The sensitivity of mammography and sonography for pure MC were 76.5% and 94.7%, respectively. MC showed favorable characteristics including less involvement of lymph node, lower stage, more expression of estrogen receptors, less HER-2 overexpression and differentiated grade, and better 10-yr disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) (86.1% and 86.3%, respectively) than IDC-NOS (74.7% and 74.9%, respectively). Ten-year DFS of pure and mixed type was 90.2% and 68.8%, respectively. Nodal status and stage were statistically significant factors for survival. MC in Koreans showed similar features to Western populations except for a younger age of onset than in IDC-NOS. Since only pure MC showed better prognosis than IDC-NOS, it is important to differentiate mixed MC from pure MC. Middle-aged Korean women presenting breast symptoms should be examined carefully and evaluated with an appropriate diagnostic work-up because some patients present radiologically benign-like lesions.

Keyword

Korea; Adenocarcinoma, Mucinous; Breast; Prognosis

MeSH Terms

Adenocarcinoma, Mucinous/diagnosis/genetics/*pathology
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Breast/pathology
Breast Neoplasms/classification/diagnosis/genetics/*pathology
Carcinoma, Ductal/diagnosis/genetics/*pathology
Disease-Free Survival
Female
Genes, erbB-2
Humans
Korea
Lymphatic Metastasis
Mammography
Middle Aged
Prognosis
Retrospective Studies
Sensitivity and Specificity
Survival Rate
Young Adult

Figure

  • Fig. 1 Survival curves in all patients. (A) Disease-free survival curve according to histologic type. (B) Overall survival curves according to histologic type. IDC-NOS, Invasive ductal carcinoma-not otherwise specified.

  • Fig. 2 Survival curves of mucinous carcinoma patients available for histologic subtype. (A) Disease-free survival curve compared with IDC-NOS. (B) Overall survival curve compared with IDC-NOS. MC, Mucinous carcinoma; IDC-NOS, Invasive ductal carcinoma-not otherwise specified.

  • Fig. 3 Stage-matched overall survival curves in all patients. (A) Stage I, (B) Stage II, (C) Stage III. IDC-NOS, Invasive ductal carcinoma-not otherwise specified.

  • Fig. 4 Age-matched overall survival curves in all patients. (A) Age of 50 yr or younger, (B) Age over 50 yr. IDC-NOS, Invasive ductal carcinoma-not otherwise specified.


Cited by  2 articles

Mucinous Carcinoma of the Breast in Comparison with Invasive Ductal Carcinoma: Clinicopathologic Characteristics and Prognosis
Soo Youn Bae, Min-Young Choi, Dong Hui Cho, Jeong Eon Lee, Seok Jin Nam, Jung-Hyun Yang
J Breast Cancer. 2011;14(4):308-313.    doi: 10.4048/jbc.2011.14.4.308.

Comparison of the Distribution Pattern of 21-Gene Recurrence Score between Mucinous Breast Cancer and Infiltrating Ductal Carcinoma in Chinese Population: A Retrospective Single-Center Study
Jiayi Wu, Shuning Ding, Lin Lin, Xiaochun Fei, Caijin Lin, Lisa Andriani, Chihwan Goh, Jiahui Huang, Jin Hong, Weiqi Gao, Siji Zhu, Hui Wang, Ou Huang, Xiaosong Chen, Jianrong He, Yafen Li, Kunwei Shen, Weiguo Chen, Li Zhu
Cancer Res Treat. 2020;52(3):671-679.    doi: 10.4143/crt.2019.387.


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