Analysis of ultrasonographic features of different pathological types of mucinous breast carcinomas / 肿瘤研究与临床

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate ultrasonographic features of different pathological types of mucinous breast carcinomas (MBC), and to improve the diagnosis rate of MBC. Methods The ultrasonographic features of 42 MBC cases between January 2014 and December 2015 in Shanxi Provincial Cancer Hospital were retrospectively analyzed according to pathological types. Results There were 24 cases of simple type and 18 cases of mixed type in 42 MBC cases (46 lesions in total). The coincidence rate of preoperative ultrasound diagnosis for cancerous lesions was 93.5 % (43/46), including 24 cases of 27 simple type lesions with oval form or lobulated (20/27, 74.1 %), clear boundary (21/27, 77.8 %), uniform internal echo (17/27, 63.0 %), posterior echo enhancement (11/27, 40.7 %), and 18 cases of 19 mixed type lesions with irregular shape (14/19, 73.7 %), unclear border (16/19, 84.2 %), uneven internal echo (13/19, 68.4 %), posterior echo attenuation (13/19, 68.4 %). The differences between the two types of ultrasound images were statistically significant (both P＜0.05). Of 42 cases, 76 axillary lymph nodes were transferred in 13 cases. Preoperative ultrasonography showed that 32 axillary lymph nodes enlargement were abnormal in 12 cases, and the detection rate was 42.1 % (32/76). The positive rates of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2) were 87.5 % (21/24), 79.2 % (19/24), 8.3 % (2/24) in simple type and 83.3 % (15/18), 88.9 % (16/18), 5.6 % (1/18) in mixed type respectively. There was no significant difference in the positive rates of 3 kinds of molecular markers among two types (all P＞0.05). Conclusions Due to the different tissue components in different types of MBC, ultrasonic features show several differences. Simple type is similar to benign masses, while mixed type shows the characteristics of invasive carcinomas.