Types Of Breast Lesions Research Articles

Detection of alpha-lactalbumin in breast lesions and relationship to estrogen receptors and serum prolactin.

Alpha-lactalbumin, the B protein of lactose synthetase secreted by the mammary epithelial cells, was isolated and purified from fresh human milk and injected into rabbits for antibody production. Indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) was done on various types of breast lesions to assess the relationship, if any, between histologic type and production of alpha-lactalbumin. Fifty percent of fibroadenomas and fibrocystic disease and 63% of infiltrating ductal carcinoma showed positive reaction. No false positives were found on IIF of alpha-lactalbumin of several tumors of nonmammary tissue. These findings suggest that IIF for alpha-lactalbumin may be helpful in ascertaining the site of origin of metastatic breast tumors. However, serum alpha-lactalbumin was detected by radioimmunoassay in only 10% of women with infiltrating ductal carcinoma, indicating that this may not be a useful marker for the presence of breast cancer at least by the method employed. This discrepancy between serum and tissue alpha-lactalbumin may be due to the short half-life of serum alpha-lactalbumin or to the lack of secretion of the protein into the blood. There was no apparent relationship between the presence of estrogen receptors or serum prolactin and alpha-lactalbumin in the 27 mammary carcinomas investigated.

Immunologic Relationship Between Breast Carcinoma and Benign Breast Disease as Detected by the Leukocyte Migration Inhibition Assay2

Patients with benign diseases of the breast reacted in a migration inhibition assay with extracts of breast cancer and benign breast lesions and a human breast cancer-derived cell line, MCF-7. The incidence of reactivity of the patients with benign breast diseases against these antigens was similar to that of breast cancer patients. In addition, patients with breast cancer reacted to some extracts of benign breast lesions. The reactivity occurred in patients with several different histopathologic types of breast lesions, but was not found in women with no detectable pathologic lesions.

The Breast Cancer Controversy

The number and types of breast lesions treated surgically at the Flower and Fifth Avenue Hospitals during the period from November 1974 through February 1976, increased sharply in monthly incidence as compared with the period from January 1973 through October 1974. This increase was attributable to public awareness of breast cancer because of the publicity given to its occurrence in the wives of the President and Vice-President. However, the consequent increase in mammography and breast surgery was not accompanied by any improvement in the stage characteristics of the breast cancers treated. The proportion of prognostically unfavorable stage II cases with involvement of four or more axillary nodes was undiminished, while the proportion of stage 0 and stage I cases was not increased among breast cancers diagnosed since Nov 1, 1974.