Radiologic-pathologic correlation of the mammographic findings retrospectively detected in inflammatory breast cancer : usefulness in clinical practice

english

2002

volume 36, issue 4

breast   Breast Neoplasms   Diagnosis   diagnostika   Embolism   Mammography   Neoplasm Circulating Cells   Pathology   Radiography

Društvo radiologije in onkologije
(Obvezni izvod spletne publikacije)

Background. The aim of this study was to describe the clinical, mammographicaland pathological characteristics of inflammatory carcinoma. Patients and methods. Clinical, mammographical and histological sections of twenty-two women (age range 28-60 years) were reviewed. The examinations had been performed over a period of four years. Results. The clinical findings were: erythema, edema, thickening of the skin and breast heat in ten patients;palpable mass in nine patients; nipple discharge in one patient; absent in two patients. Pathological findings were: tumor emboli in the dermallymphatics in eight patients; tumor emboli in the vessels in ten patients; tumor emboli both in the dermal lymphatics and in the vessels in four patients. The radiologic findings were: skin thickening trabecular thickening and blurring of structure in ten patients (common presentation); mass in nine patients; malignant-type calcifications in two patients (uncommonpresentation); absent in one patient. The follow-up examination (eighteen months) detected that only one patient with common presentation of inflammatory carcinoma had no local or systemic recurrence against eightpatients with uncommon presentation. Conclusions. The clinical and mammographical aspects, which suggest the presence of an inflammatory carcinoma, occur only in 45.4% of the patients. The radiological aspect seems to correlate with the different prognosis of the tumour, resulting in a betterprognosis in those with an uncommon aspect.

16.09.2009