In the January 1, 2010 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, a study was released which confirms the belief that tubular carcinomas of the breast have a more favorable prognosis than typical Grade I invasive carcinomas, NST.
I’ve reported before on invasive carcinomas which have been associated with a more favorable prognosis. Tubular carcinoma is [...]
Here is a summary by a special panel of the American Society of Breast Disease on the importance of multidisciplinary breast care which addresses gaps in our current process of trying to obtain optimal breast health care for patients.
As a disclaimer, I am a member of the American Society of Breast Disease, but I was not [...]
I hope you read this article on the importance of having a breast pathologist read your biopsy. I have posted this before, but it’s such an important “white paper” report from Komen that I think it deserves more discussion.
When confronted with a breast health issue, many patients seek out a particular breast center or a [...]
I’ve written before about the controversy over lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS) and whether it is just a marker of increased risk or possibly a precursor to invasive carcinoma, like ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). The reason it was felt to be just a marker of increased risk was that most early studies showed that [...]
Everyone has heard of the importance of estrogen and progesterone receptors in breast cancer–but how many of you have heard of the possible role of androgen receptors (AR) in breast cancer?
I have a particular interest in this subject as we published an article several years ago that found AR positivity in 49% of estrogen receptor [...]
A study to be released in the November 1 issue of the journal Cancer took a retrospective look at 110 patients with invasive cancer who were involved in a clinical trial on the use of partial breast irradiation (PBI) vs. whole breast irradiation.
Invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) is the second most common type of breast cancer after invasive carcinoma, no special type (NST). However, there are several subtypes of ILC, with the pleomorphic variant getting a lot of attention because most studies suggest it behaves in a more aggressive manner than typical ILC. Pathologists also recognize other variants [...]
One of the reasons I started this site was to make sure that patients had appropriate information about the pathology behind their breast biopsy diagnosis. Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation out there which has recently come to my attention, thanks to friends and colleagues who I’ve spoken with.
I have found that there [...]
The current dogma in the breast community is that a patient with a diagnosis of atypical ductal hyperplasia (ADH) on needle core biopsy needs to have that area removed surgically. This is because most studies showed that in about 20-30% of the time a more significant lesion was seen on the surgical excision, such as [...]
I wanted to take some time to write about one of the most challenging areas in breast pathology and one that I receive countless questions about–distinguishing atypical ductal hyperplasia (ADH) from ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). While this may seem like an academic issue that doctors argue about it has MAJOR clinical implications for [...]