Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2011 Dec;14(4):308-13.
doi: 10.4048/jbc.2011.14.4.308. Epub 2011 Dec 27.

Mucinous carcinoma of the breast in comparison with invasive ductal carcinoma: clinicopathologic characteristics and prognosis

Soo Youn Bae  1 , Min-Young Choi, Dong Hui Cho, Jeong Eon Lee, Seok Jin Nam, Jung-Hyun Yang
Affiliations

Mucinous carcinoma of the breast in comparison with invasive ductal carcinoma: clinicopathologic characteristics and prognosis

Soo Youn Bae et al. J Breast Cancer. 2011 Dec.

Abstract

Purpose: Mucinous carcinoma (MC) of the breast is a rare histologic type of mammary neoplasm. The objective of this study was to evaluate the long-term disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) of MC.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of all MC cases reported to a database between 1994 and 2010. Clinicopathological characteristics and survival of 268 MC cases were reviewed and compared with 2,455 invasive ductal carcinoma-not otherwise specified (IDC-NOS) cases.

Results: The MC cases were of a younger age, involved less lymph nodes, lower stage, more expression of hormonal receptors, and less HER2 overexpression compared to the IDC-NOS cases. The 5-year DFS rate for MC was 95.2% compared to 92.0% for IDC-NOS. The 5-year OS rate for MC was 98.9% compared to 94.9% for IDC-NOS. Multivariate analysis using Cox regression revealed that the mucinous type was a significant prognostic factor for DFS with lower nodal status (N stage) and hormonal therapy. For OS, only N stage was the most significant prognostic factor followed by adjuvant chemotherapy and adjuvant hormonal therapy.

Conclusion: MC was shown to be associated with a better DFS than IDC-NOS, but it had a similar OS. Nodal status and adjuvant therapy appear to be more significant predictors of prognosis than histologic subtype.

Keywords: Adenocarcinoma; Breast; Invasive ductal carcinoma; Mucinous; Prognosis.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Comparison of disease-free survival (DFS) curves for invasive ducal carcinoma (IDC) and mucinous carcinoma.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Comparison of overall survival (OS) curves for invasive ducal carcinoma (IDC) and mucinous carcinoma.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Overall survival (OS) curves for invasive ducal carcinoma (IDC) and mucinous carcinoma, stratified by stage.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Overall survival (OS) curves for invasive ducal carcinoma (IDC) and mucinous carcinoma, stratified by tumor size (T stage).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Di Saverio S, Gutierrez J, Avisar E. A retrospective review with long term follow up of 11,400 cases of pure mucinous breast carcinoma. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2008;111:541–547. - PubMed
    1. Komaki K, Sakamoto G, Sugano H, Morimoto T, Monden Y. Mucinous carcinoma of the breast in Japan. A prognostic analysis based on morphologic features. Cancer. 1988;61:989–996. - PubMed
    1. Lacroix-Triki M, Suarez PH, MacKay A, Lambros MB, Natrajan R, Savage K, et al. Mucinous carcinoma of the breast is genomically distinct from invasive ductal carcinomas of no special type. J Pathol. 2010;222:282–298. - PubMed
    1. André S, Cunha F, Bernardo M, Meneses e Sousa J, Cortez F, Soares J. Mucinous carcinoma of the breast: a pathologic study of 82 cases. J Surg Oncol. 1995;58:162–167. - PubMed
    1. Diab SG, Clark GM, Osborne CK, Libby A, Allred DC, Elledge RM. Tumor characteristics and clinical outcome of tubular and mucinous breast carcinomas. J Clin Oncol. 1999;17:1442–1448. - PubMed