[Three cases of spindle cell carcinoma of the breast]

Spindle cell carcinoma of the breast is a rare variant of breast cancer composed of spindle-shaped sarcomatoid cancer cells. We report three females with spindle cell carcinoma of the breast who underwent resection, with a review of the literature. The females were 26, 52, and 58 years old, and the tumor diameters were 3.5, 3.5, and 9.0 cm, respectively. All three patients underwent Auchincloss method mastectomy. A cystic lesion accompanied by necrosis was observed in the tumor of two of the three patients. Axillary lymph node metastasis was pathologically diagnosed in one of the three patients. All three tumors were estrogen receptor- and progesterone receptor- negative, showed a proliferation of severely atypical spindle or polygonal epithelial cells, and were diagnosed as spindle cell carcinoma. One patient died of pulmonary, bone, and brain metastases 2 years after the operation, but the other two have followed a favorable course without recurrence for 5 years since the surgical resection.