Carcinoma:
Classification & more commonly encountered tumours
Classification of breast cancer:
Invasive Carcinoma - no special type (NST)
- 70% of all breast cancers
- Wide range of appearances
- Prognosis partly dictated by
tumour grade
Grade 1 Carcinoma NST: Low Power Left, High Power
Right
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Grade 3 Carcinoma NST: Medium Power Left, High Power
Right
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Grade 3 Carcinoma NST: Fine needle aspiration
cytology - Pap stain
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Invasive carcinomas of (more common) special types:
Invasive lobular carcinoma - classical
pattern
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Further example of a classical pattern invasive lobular carcinoma.
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Invasive Tubular Carcinoma
- 2% of all invasive cancers
- Frequently impalpable
- More common in screening population
- Usually detected as small stellate leions on mammograms
- When identified, review of previous mammograms may reveal the lesion, and show how slow growing it can be
- A small percentage of cases, probably < 2% will have axillary node metastases, often subtle
- Excellent prognosis
Tubular carcinoma of breast
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Invasive mucinous carcinoma
- 1% of all cancers
- May be pure or mixed pattern
- To qualify as pure in line with other special types, 90% of
the tumour is required to show this pattern.
- Excellent prognosis if pure
- Majority Grade 1 or 2
Mucinous carcinoma of breast
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