Pleomorphic lobular carcinoma of breast:a clinicopathologic study of 7 cases / 临床与实验病理学杂志

ABSTRACT

Purpose To investigate the clinical and morphological features as well as immunophenotype of pleomorphic lobular carcino-ma ( PLC) . Methods Seven cases of PLC were retrieved from 34 cases of invasive lobular carcinoma. The clinical data, histologic features, immunohistochemical findings were analyzed. Results The mean age of the patients was 56. 6 years, with a range of 47 to 74 years. PLC might be nodular mass in general macroscopy. Histologically, PLC retained classical or non-classical single cells, but exhibited a greater degree of cellular atypia and pleomorphism and a higher mitotic rate than classic invasive lobular carcinoma ( ILC) . PLC was accompanied by ductal carcinoma in situ ( DCIS) and pleomorphic lobular carcinoma in situ ( PLCIS) . Immunohistochemistry and HER-2 FISH were detected. PLC showed E-cadherin negative (7/7) and p120 cytoplasmic positive (7/7), ER (5/7), PR (5/7), and HER-2 (7/7) mostly negative. 5 cases were characterized by triple negative breast cancer, two of which are basal-like pheno-type. Some cases could be observed nerve invasion (3/7) and axillary lymph node metastasis (4/7). Conclusion PLC is a very rare subtype of invasive lobular carcinoma. In some cases there are nerve invasion and lymph node metastasis. The diagnosis of PLC de-pends on the pathological morphological and immunohistochemical markers.