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. 2009 Jul 22;1(1):e14.
doi: 10.4081/rt.2009.e14.

Primary breast lymphomas

Olivier Julen  1 , Ilaria Dellacasa, Marie-Françoise Pelte, Bettina Borish, Christine Bouchardy, Federica Capanna, Georges Vlastos, Jean-Bernard Dubuisson, Anne-Thérèse Vlastos
Affiliations

Primary breast lymphomas

Olivier Julen et al. Rare Tumors. .

Abstract

The diagnosis, prognostic factors, and optimal management of primary breast lymphomas (PBL) is difficult. Seven patients recorded at the Geneva Cancer Registry between 1973-1998 were reviewed. Five patient had diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, one a follicular lymphoma and one a MALT-lymphoma. All patients had clinical and radiological findings consistent with breast cancer and underwent mastectomy, which is not indicated in PBL. Diagnosis should be established prior to operative interventions, as fine needle aspiration missed the diagnosis for one patient and intra-operative frozen sections for 3 patients in our study. Five-year and 10-year overall survivals were 57% and 15%, respectively. Of the 3 patients who died from PBL, 2 had tumors that were Bcl-2 positive but Bcl-6 negative. All 3 surviving patients have positive Bcl-2 and Bcl-6 immunostaining, which could be important prognostic factors if confirmed by a larger study.

Keywords: bcl2.; bcl6; breast; cancer; lymphoma.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Follicular lymphoma. (a) Follicular aspect: HE (×100); (b) large transformed cells with one to three peripheral nucleoli: Giemsa (×200); (c) B cells with follicular arrangement: CD79 (×50); (d) B cells with follicular arrangement: CD79 (×100); (e) reactive T cells surrounding the B cells with follicular arrangement: CD3(×50); (f) Bcl-6 staining (×200).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Destruction of the glandular tissue epithelium by aggregates of lymphoma cells. (a) Mammary gland infiltrated by lymphoma cells: HE (×400); (b) mammary gland infiltrated by B cells: CD20 (×400); mammary gland: Keratin (×400).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Lymphoepithelial lesions. (a) Lymphoepithelial lesion: HE (×50); (b) lym-phoepithelial lesion: HE (×100);(c) mammary gland: keratin (×200); (d) mammary gland infiltrated by B cells: CD20 (×200).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Primary breast lymphoma without lymphoepithelial lesion. (a) Proliferation index: MiB1 (×200) (80% positive); (b) HE (×100); (c) mammary gland: keratin (×200).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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