ABSTRACT

Objective:

Mucinous carcinoma of the breast is relatively rare and the prevalence of its pure form among all carcinomas of the breast is 2%. Its pure and mixed types have been defined. This study aims at evaluating therapeutic approaches to and prognostic features of mucinous carcinoma of the breast.

Materials and Methods:

The 24 patients, who had undergone surgery because of mucinous breast cancer at our clinic between 2004 and 2011, were categorized into two groups as pure and mixed according to their pathological diagnoses within the scope of the study.

Results:

All the cases were female and the median age was 54 years (37-84). While the number of patients with mixed mucinous carcinoma of the breast was 15, the number of patients with pure mucinous carcinoma of the breast was nine (37.5%). The median follow-up period of the patients was 40 (12-84) months. Axillary lymph node metastasis was seen only in one patient within the pure group (11%) while it was seen in nine cases in the mixed group. Thus, there was a statistically significant difference between the groups (p=0.001). Local recurrence was seen only in one patient in the mixed group. While there were six patients with distant metastases in the mixed group, there was no distant metastasis in the pure group (p=0.028).

Conclusion:

Pure mucinous breast cancers have better prognoses than other invasive breast cancers. Pure mucinous carcinoma of the breast is a type of cancer with which physicians may achieve gratifying results through treatment carried out in line with oncological principles.