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Case Reports
. 2018 May;100(5):e132-e135.
doi: 10.1308/rcsann.2018.0060. Epub 2018 Apr 16.

Mucinous breast carcinoma with tall columnar cells

N Tsoukalas  1   2   3 , M Kiakou  1   3 , M Tolia  4 , I D Kostakis  5 , M Galanopoulos  1 , G Nakos  6 , D Tryfonopoulos  2 , G Kyrgias  4 , G Koumakis  2
Affiliations
Case Reports

Mucinous breast carcinoma with tall columnar cells

N Tsoukalas et al. Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 2018 May.

Abstract

Mucinous carcinoma of the breast represents 1%-4% of all breast cancers. The World Health Organization classification divides this type of tumour into three different subtypes: mucinous carcinoma, mucinous carcinoma with tall columnar cells (mucinous cystadenocarcinoma and columnar cell mucinous carcinoma) and signet ring cell carcinoma. A 74-year-old woman presented a tumour with inflammatory features in the upper outer quadrant of her left breast, 7 cm in diameter. The core biopsy showed infiltrating ductal carcinoma of no specific type. The tumour-node-metastasis clinical staging was T4cN3M0 (Stage IIIC). She received neoadjuvant chemotherapy, underwent left mastectomy with radical axillary resection and subsequently received radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The histological examination of the surgical specimen revealed two solid tumors in the tail of Spence, which corresponded to adenocarcinoma with high columnar cells. The patient died 16 months after the diagnosis, suffering from pulmonary metastases and anterior chest wall infiltration. A review of the literature revealed only 21 reports of mucinous carcinoma of the breast with tall columnar cells, including our case. This is only the third time that the specific histological type of columnar cell mucinous carcinoma has been reported in the literature.

Keywords: Breast cancer; Columnar cell mucinous carcinoma; Mucinous breast carcinoma; Mucinous cystadenocarcinoma; Tall columnar cells.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Core biopsy. Adenocarcinoma showing features of invasive ductal carcinoma of no specific type
Figure 2
Figure 2
Histologic features of mucinous carcinoma of columnar cells. The cysts are lined by a single layer of tall columnar mucinous cells with focal areas of micropapillary and small tufted structures, resembling those of the uterine endocervix
Figure 3
Figure 3
Cell morphology. The tumour cells showed mild atypia with basally located nuclei, increased nucleus to cytoplasm ratio and abundant intracytoplasmic mucin or mucin-depleted columnar cells with more pleomorphic nuclei
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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