Hyalinized Neurofibromas: Not Just Rare Variants in Skin of the Female Breast.

Abstract

Although classical neurofibromas are commonly encountered skin lesions, histologic variants are infrequent. We report a greater than 15-year retrospective review of a single institution's experience with the histopathologic diagnosis of neurofibroma of the female breast with a focus on the hyalinized variant. An electronic histopathology record review (CoPathPlus; Cerner Corp, North Kansas City, MO) was conducted from January 1, 2000, to October 16, 2015, for all "neurofibroma" diagnoses rendered in "females" at the anatomical site "breast". All cases were microscopically revisited and subclassified into 1 of 10 histopathologic categories. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) for S100, tryptase, and CD117 were performed on 19 hyalinized and 19 age-matched classical neurofibromas. During the study period, 62,021 breast specimens were reviewed at our institution. Of these, 86 (0.14%) were diagnosed as neurofibromas. Subclassification was as follows: 50 classical (58%), 19 hyalinized (22%), 6 diffuse (7%), 5 cellular (6%), 3 myxoid (4%), 2 epithelioid (2%), and 1 plexiform (1%). All hyalinized and age-matched classical neurofibromas were S100 positive. The mean number of IHC-positive mast cells per high-power field (hpf) was 34.5 by tryptase and 26.8 by CD117 for the hyalinized subset and 22.5 by tryptase and 19.3 by CD117 for the classical cohort. Published literature reports a 2.6% incidence of hyalinized neurofibromas at nonspecial cutaneous sites. Our series details a 22% incidence in the breast. Regarding pathophysiology, there is a statistically significant increase in the average number of IHC-positive mast cells per hpf in hyalinized variants when compared with classical neurofibromas of the breast both by tryptase (P = 0.00157) and CD117 (P = 0.00901).