Correlations between histologic type of clinical breast cancer and physiopathologic profile of the mammary glandular tree.

The relationships between cancer histotype and characters of the mammary glandular tree have been studied in 100 human breasts removed for clinical cancer by radical mastectomy. The group of invasive ductal carcinomas, including 78 cases, was subclassified in not otherwise specified (53 cases), with intraductal (19 cases), and with tubular component (6 cases). The other cancer histotypes were invasive lobular carcinoma (9 cases), medullary carcinoma (7 cases), mucinous carcinoma (4 cases), and papillary carcinoma (2 cases). The pattern of the mammary glandular tree was atrophic (67 cases) or adenosic, i.e., rich in mammary lobules (33 cases), but mammary lobules (normal, paranormal, atypical, or persistent in otherwise atrophic breasts) were present in 83% of the cases. A significant prevalence of not otherwise specified cancer (X2 = 10.20; p less than 0.01) was found in atrophic breasts (64%) and, even more, in breasts without lobules (76%). By contrast, intraductal component, tubular component, invasive lobular, and medullary cancers were, with two single exceptions, only in breasts with lobules, and this concentration was also significant (X2 = 7.26; p less than 0.01). It is concluded that breast cancer histotype is influenced by, or related to, the surrounding microenvironment, i.e., the pattern of the mammary glandular tree.