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Clinicopathological feature and long-term prognosis of apocrine carcinoma of the breast in Japanese women

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Abstract

Because of the rarity of apocrine carcinoma and lack of standardized criteria for the diagnosis, the definitive conclusions of clinicopathologic features and the prognosis has not been determined. We retrospectively examined data on 2091 curatively treated Japanese patients with primary breast carcinoma. Among them, 33 (1.6%) who had been diagnosed of apocrine carcinoma were reviewed. Compared with non-apocrine carcinoma, apocrine carcinoma was characterized by less positive rates of ER and PR, and by frequent rates of unilateral multicentric breast carcinoma with significant difference. The clinicopathological factors influencing 12-year survival rate were lymph node metastasis, lymphatic involvement and vascular involvement. There was no difference in survival rates at 10 years after operation between apocrine carcinoma and non-apocrine carcinoma. Our result shows unique hormone response and unilateral multicentricity are only typical clinicopathological features of apocrine carcinoma.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, Oita Prefectural Hospital, Bunyo, 476, Japan

    Hideya Takeuchi, Hiroaki Ueo & Tadashi Kano

  2. Department of Pathology, Oita Prefectural Hospital, Bunyo, 476

    Kohichi Tsuji

  3. Department of Surgery and Science, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, 3-1-1 Maidashi, Japan

    Yoshihiko Maehara

Authors
  1. Hideya Takeuchi
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  2. Kohichi Tsuji
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  3. Hiroaki Ueo
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  4. Tadashi Kano
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  5. Yoshihiko Maehara
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Takeuchi, H., Tsuji, K., Ueo, H. et al. Clinicopathological feature and long-term prognosis of apocrine carcinoma of the breast in Japanese women. Breast Cancer Res Treat 88, 49–54 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-004-9495-z

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