Invasive lobular carcinoma of the breast.

The classical pattern of invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) has become well established since the tumour was first designated in the 1940's. It is a distinct histological type of breast cancer, yet the incidence rates accumulated from the literature are widely divergent and vary from 0.7-20 per cent,' suggesting the criteria for diagnosis are not well defined. Martinez and Azzopardil in the only series reported from the United Kingdom studied in detail the histological criteria for diagnosis and discussed and illustrated the recently described rarer variants. This study, and the problems of management posed by lobular carcinoma, encouraged us to review a censecutive series of invasive breast carcinomas from our records presenting during 1979. The incidence of ILC, with and without the in situ lesion, was assessed, the rarer variants of the tumour were sought and some of the problems presented by this diagnosis considered.