Histopathologic changes of Non-tumoral Breast Tissue in Patients with Invasive Carcinoma of Breast

Various studies have shown increased relative risk for breast cancer in patients with different kinds of nonmalignant
breast diseases. The aim of this study was to evaluate histologic changes in non-tumoral areas of mastectomy specimens of
patients with breasts cancer.
Materials and Methods: 232 consecutive cases of breast carcinoma were enrolled. Histopathology slides of all 232 cases were
evaluated by light microscopy for tumor type, size and grade, lympho-vascular invasion (LVI), perineural invasion and also benign
changes of nontumoral breast tissue including hyperplasia, inflammation, atypia, adenosis, sclerosing adenosis, apocrine metaplasia,
lactating change, calcification, fibrosis and cyst formation.
Results: We found no significant association between nontumoral changes and histologic subtypes of the tumor. Our results showed
that in cases with apocrine metaplasia the frequencies of lymph node involvement and lymphovascular invasion were significantly
lower than cases without apocrine metaplasia (p=0.04 and 0.01, respectively). Apocrine metaplasia was also associated with tumor
grade. It was more frequent in low grade tumors than high grade ones (p=0.02). Considering Her2 expression, apocrine metaplasia was
seen in only 7% (3/43) of Her2 negative cases in contrast to 29.4% (5/17) in Her2 positive cases (p=0.02).
Conclusion: It seems that some of the benign nontumoral changes have a probable relationship with breast carcinoma. So we suggest
that follow up of the patients with benign breast changes could be useful in preventing or early diagnosis of breast cancer