Comparative study of 5-year survival in no special type ductal and mixed type breast cancer

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the outcome of patients with invasive breast cancers showing a mixture of invasive ‘ductal’ carcinoma of no special type (NST) and invasive lobular carcinoma. Survival of mixed ductal and lobular carcinomas was compared with a series of patients with pure invasive ductal carcinomas of NST. From a total of 1326 patients with breast cancer examined during the 4 year period 1981–1985, 66 patients, 49 with carcinomas of NST and 17 mixed, were identified who had been treated by modified radical mastectomy, who were in the age range 42–61 years, and who had T 2 tumours in the outer half of grades II or III, were unifocal and had lymph node metastases. 5-year survival of patients with mixed carcinomas appeared worse than those patients with carcinomas of NST, 35% versus 63%, 0.06>p>0.05. Mixed carcinomas were also more likely to be grade III, 52.9% versus 18.4%, p=0.01 and more likely to be associated with in situ carcinoma, 100% versus 71.4%, p=0.03. Our results suggest that patients developing carcinomas with a mixture of invasive ductal and lobular elements have a poor prognosis.