Atypical medullary breast carcinoma – the clinical picture and prognosis

Purpose: The purpose of this paper was to present the clinical picture and the effectiveness of treatment patients with atypical medullary breast carcinoma (A-MBC). Materials and Methods: Sixty-five patients with A-MBC were treated between 1975 and 2005. More of them (70.2%) were in Stage I or II and had no expression of c-erb-B2 gene (81.5%), estrogen receptor (87.7%), and progesterone receptor (76.9%). Radical mastectomy was applied in 55 patients (84.6%) and remaining ten (15.4%) patients underwent breast conserving therapy. The treatment effectiveness was evaluated as ten-year disease-free survival (DFS) rate (Kaplan-Meier method). Results: The ten-year disease-free survival (DFS) rate was 61.5%. Only lymph nodal status was statistically significant prognostic factor. Ten–year DFS rate was 82.1% and 30.8% for pN0 and pN+, respectively. Conclusion: Although A-MBC has probably a slightly better- prognosis than invasive ductal breast carcinoma, these patients should be treated according to the same rules as those with breast cancer of basal-like or triple-negative type.

Medullary breast cancer; Atypical medullary breast cancer; Triple-negative breast cancer.

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