Periductal elastic tissue of breast cancer. Quantitative histologic study.

Using techniques of stereology, we estimated the relative volume of periductal elastic tissue in 60 infiltrating ductal carcinomas of the breast. Volume density of periductal elastic tissue in the neoplasm correlated with our own subjective histologic estimates of the amount of elastic tissue. Periductal elastic tissue had a significantly higher volume density in the neoplasm than in nonneoplastic breast, but the two estimates did not correlate with each other. Similarly, the volume density of elastic tissue in the neoplasm did not correlate with that of neoplastic cells or of stromal collagen in the neoplasm, degree of lymphocytic infiltration, lymph node metastasis, mortality, menstrual status, age, parity, or presence or levels of estrogen receptor protein in the neoplasm. On the other hand, parity correlated with the volume density of periductal elastic tissue in the nonneoplastic parenchyma of the breast. Our findings indicate that there are at least two separate elastogenic effects in infiltrating ductal carcinoma of the breast: that exerted by parity on nonneoplastic tissue and that exerted by cancer itself on the neoplasm.