Malignant progression of adenomyoepithelial adenosis of the breast

Abstract

A case of breast tumor is described, which consisted of dense and uniform proliferation of ducts and lobules composed of both epithelial and myoepithelial cells and in which multiple foci of adenocarcinoma were observed. The tumor surrounding the carcinoma foci was identified as 'adenomyoepithelial adenosis'. Adenomyoepithelial adenosis was not monoclonal by clonal analysis, but revealed a relatively high labeling index for proliferating cell nuclear antigen by immunohistochemistry. Although it was still undetermined whether adenomyoepithelial adenosis is a non-clonal nonneoplastic lesion or a biclonal neoplastic one, the lesion was shown to reveal high proliferative activity in both glandular epithelial and myoepithelial cells and was considered to be prone to progress to obvious carcinoma.