Clinicopathologic Characteristics of Mucinous Carcinoma of the Breast

Kim, Hee Joung; Kim, Sung Won; Chung, Ki Wook; Chang, Myung Chul; Youn, Yeo Kyu; Oh, Seung Keun; Choe, Kuk Jin; Noh, Dong Young

Abstract

PURPOSE: Mucinous carcinoma of the breast (MC) is known to have a slow growth rate, a low frequency of axillary node metastasis and a good prognosis. This study aims to analyze the clinicopathologic characteristics and survival rate of mucinous carcinoma of the breast.
METHODS
We reviewed the medical reports of 68 patients with MC who had been treated between January, 1981 and December, 2000 at the Department of Surgery, Seoul National University Hospital. We compared these patients with 2,596 patients with infiltating ductal carcinoma of the breast (IDC) in order to elucidate the clinicopathologic findings and survival.
RESULTS
The mean ages at onset were 46.9 years in IDC and 45.5 years in MC. The most common chief complaint was a palpable breast mass in both groups. In respect to tumor size, IDC was larger than MC (mean 3.0 1.9 cm vs. 2.5 1.2 cm: p=0.008). The most common surgical procedure was a modified radical mastectomy in both types of breast cancer. Quardrantectomy and axillary dissection was conducted more frequently in MC than IDC (26.5% vs 12.9%) (p=0.002). In pathologic comparison, MC had earlier TNM stages than IDC (p=0.000). In respect to nuclear and histologic grades, MC demonstrated better grades than IDC. As for estrogen receptor, p53 and c-erb-B2 positivities, there were no differences observed between MC and IDC. MC had better overall survival than IDC (5 YSR: 95.1% vs 83.4%, 10 YSR: 95.1% vs 68.9%) (p=0.0036). Also, MC exhibited a higher disease-free survival rate (5 YSR: 96.1% vs 70.7%,10 YSR: 88.7% vs 54.3%)(p=0.0001).
CONCLUSION
We found MC to have a smaller tumor size, earlier TNM stage and better nuclear and histologic grades than IDC. In survival analysis, MC demonstrated a higher survival rate than IDC.