BREAST DISEASE Flashcards
causes of nipple discharge
- Duct ectasia>> greenish
- Intraduct papilloma
- DCIS
- Associated with a cyst
What does normal breast tissue look like histologically?
What is the breast tissue actually?
Modified sweat glands
•Non-functional except during lactation
•Lobules = acini and intralobular stroma
How can breast cancer present?
• Most common in the upper outer quadrant
(approximately 50% occur here)
Palpable mass
– Most worrying if hard, craggy or fixed
Mammographic abnormalities
Nipple discharge
– Bloody or serous (not milky) – Spontaneous and unilateral
Pain
Is breast cancer common?
average age at diagnosis?
- Most common non-skin malignancy in women
- Accounts for 20% of all malignancies in women
- Incidence rises with age
- 77% occurs in women >50 years
- Average age at diagnosis is 64 years
- Rare before 25 years (except for some familial cases)
Male breast cancer
when do they have Increased risk?
1% of all cases of breast cancer
– Increased risk with Klinefelter’s syndrome, male to female transsexuals, men treated with oestrogen for prostate cancer
What are the risk factors for breast cancer?
what decreases risk for breast cancer?
• Major risk factors are related to hormone exposure
– Gender
– Uninterrupted menses
– Early menarche (< 11 years)
– Late menopause
– Reproductive history - parity and age at first full term pregnancy
– Breast-feeding
– Obesity and high fat diet
– Exogenous oestrogens – HRT slightly increases risk (1.2-1.7 times), long term users of OCP possibly have an increased risk
- Radiation
Higher incidence in which countries?
– Higher incidence in US and Europe
Hereditary breast cancer
what must carriers do?
which gene?
Lifetime breast cancer risk for female carriers (%)
10% of breast cancers
– 3% of all breast cancers and 25% of familial cancers attributed to mutations in BRCA1 (BReast CAncer associated gene 1) or BRCA2
- Both tumour suppressor genes – their proteins repair damaged DNA
- 0.1% of population has BRCA1 germline mutations
- Lifetime breast cancer risk for female carriers is 60-85%
- Median age at diagnosis is approximately 20 years earlier than sporadic cases
- Carriers may undergo prophylactic mastectomies
How do we diagnose breast cancer?
• Triple approach
– Clinical – history, family history, examination
– Radiographic imaging – mammogram and ultrasound scan
– Pathology – core biopsy and fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC)
How do we classify breast carcinoma?
Approximately 95% are adenocarcinomas
- Adenocarcinomas divided into in situ (ductal carcinoma in situ = DCIS) and invasive
- Invasive carcinomas classified by histological type:
– E.g., ductal, lobular, tubular, mucinous
What is DCIS?
- Neoplastic population of cells LIMITED to ducts and lobules by basement membrane, myoepithelial cells are preserved
- Does not invade into vessels and therefore cannot metastasise or kill the patient
- 3 grades showing increasing cytological atypia – low, intermediate and high
So why is ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) a problem then?
- Non-obligate precursor of invasive carcinoma
- High grade more likely to become invasive and produce a poor prognosis invasive tumour
- Can spread through ducts and lobules and be very extensive
How is DCIS likely to present histologically?
Histologically often shows central (comedo) necrosis with calcification
How is DCIS likely to present on a mammogram?
• Most often presents as mammographic calcifications
- clusters or linear and branching
- but can present as a mass
How does invasive carcinoma differ from DCIS?