Apocrine carcinoma: clinical and mammographic features.

PURPOSE: To describe the mammographic features of apocrine carcinoma and assess the patterns of calcifications associated with these lesions.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

Clinical and mammographic features from 17 patients with apocrine carcinoma were retrospectively reviewed. Special attention was paid to the presence of mixed form, diffusely scattered microcalcifications on mammograms.

RESULTS

Patients were referred for clinical (n = 10), mammographic (n = 2), or both clinical and mammographic (n = 5) abnormalities. Findings at clinical examination included a palpable breast mass (n = 12), multiple breast masses (n = 1), and bloody nipple discharge (n = 2); two patients had normal findings. Fourteen patients had opacities at mammography. These opacities were associated with microcalcifications in 10 cases. Three patients had microcalcifications without opacities; one of those three patients exhibited a mixed form of diffusely scattered calcifications.

CONCLUSION

Clinical and mammographic features of apocrine carcinoma do not differ from those of invasive ductal carcinoma.