Medullary Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is common worldwide, in the United States of America, 240000 new cases are diagnosed every year. Medullary breast cancer is a rare type of invasive ductal breast cancer. It accounts 1-7% of all breas 2010). Medullary breast cancer is less common carriers of the BRCA-1 genetic mutation. Moore and Foote (1947) described the unique histological features of medullary breast cancer as high grade structure, with sharp circumscription, dense infiltration with lymphocytes, hemorrhagic necrosis, and favorable prognosis (Moore OS, 1949; Cotran, Strict histopathological features should be fulfilled before the firm diagnosis of medullary car breast is made. Due to the subjectivity of histopathological grouping of the breast cancer interobserver variability. Ridolfi and his colleagues in the year 1977 set up criteria for the diagnosis of medullary carcinoma that included the presence of the following: microscopic circumscription, high nuclear grade, infiltration by lymphoplasmacytic cells, syncytial growth pattern in at least 75% of the areas examined, the absence of tubular differentiation and an intraductal component (Kempson, 206). Previous literature has indicated that despite the presence of aggressive features like large size of the tumor, high nuclear grade, and negative hormone receptors, the tumor behave less aggressively and have a favorable prognosis (Li, 2005; Vu-Nishino There is dispute about medullary carcinoma of the breast among scientists; some regard it as a invasive ductal carcinoma while other distinguish the tumor as different nosological unit (Romaniuk -323X) Vol. 4(5) pp. 276-278, May, 2016