Open Access

Clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of metaplastic carcinoma of the breast

  • Authors:
    • Meng Xiao
    • Zhengjun Yang
    • Xiaochuan Tang
    • Lan Mu
    • Xuchen Cao
    • Xin Wang
  • View Affiliations

  • Published online on: June 16, 2017     https://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2017.6399
  • Pages: 1971-1978
  • Copyright: © Xiao et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License.

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Abstract

Metaplastic carcinoma of the breast (MBC) is a rare and heterogeneous type of neoplasm. Knowledge about its clinical characteristics, prognostic significance and optimal treatment modalities is fragmentary and controversial. The present retrospective study aimed to investigate the prognostic value of the clinicopathological features and different therapeutic strategies in MBC. For this purpose, the medical records of 69 MBC patients subjected to surgical resection for MBC at the Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital (Tianjin, China) were reviewed. A total of 69 MBC cases were followed up for 9‑139 months. The 5‑year disease‑free survival (DFS) rate was 52.2% and the overall survival (OS) rate was 60.2%. Survival analysis revealed that large tumor size and lymph node (LN) metastases were correlated with shortened 5‑year DFS and OS rates. In addition, chemotherapy significantly improved the prognosis of patients with LN metastasis, while radiation therapy (RT) significantly improved the 5‑year OS and DFS rates of MBC patients with tumors ≥5 cm or with >4 metastatic LNs. In conclusion, MBC is a clinically aggressive subtype of breast cancer associated with a large tumor size. Chemotherapy may be recommended for certain subtypes of MBC with LN positivity, and RT may be a component of multimodality therapy for some MBC patients.
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August-2017
Volume 14 Issue 2

Print ISSN: 1792-1074
Online ISSN:1792-1082

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Copy and paste a formatted citation
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Spandidos Publications style
Xiao M, Yang Z, Tang X, Mu L, Cao X and Wang X: Clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of metaplastic carcinoma of the breast. Oncol Lett 14: 1971-1978, 2017.
APA
Xiao, M., Yang, Z., Tang, X., Mu, L., Cao, X., & Wang, X. (2017). Clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of metaplastic carcinoma of the breast. Oncology Letters, 14, 1971-1978. https://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2017.6399
MLA
Xiao, M., Yang, Z., Tang, X., Mu, L., Cao, X., Wang, X."Clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of metaplastic carcinoma of the breast". Oncology Letters 14.2 (2017): 1971-1978.
Chicago
Xiao, M., Yang, Z., Tang, X., Mu, L., Cao, X., Wang, X."Clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of metaplastic carcinoma of the breast". Oncology Letters 14, no. 2 (2017): 1971-1978. https://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2017.6399