Apocrine breast carcinoma
a case report and literature review
Keywords:
Breast neoplasms, Apocrine glands, Adenocarcinoma, Diagnosis, Combined modality therapyAbstract
Apocrine carcinoma of the breast is a rare condition, and for this reason its origin and definition remains controversial. Some believe that is a variant of invasive carcinoma. The incidence of this disease is about 0.5 to 8% of the new diagnosed cases of breast carcinoma. Since it is not possible to differentiate the apocrine carcinoma from the usual breast carcinomas by using radiological images, diagnosis can be made by cytology showing typical alterations of this tumor. It is usually positive for GCDFP-15 (gross cystic disease fluid protein-15), a marker of apocrine differentiation more reliable than morphology. This type of tumor is often negative for estrogen and progesterone and positive for the androgen receptor. The rate of positivity for p53, HER-2 and BCL-2 in apocrine carcinomas is almost the same as for non-apocrine carcinomas. The surgical and adjuvant treatment is normally the same as invasive ductal carcinoma, and both seem also to have the same prognosis.
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