Comparison between histologic type, estrogen receptor, and nuclear DNA content in mammary carcinoma

Histological specimens from 80 invasive breast carcinomas comprising typical cases of 16 ductal, nine papillary, 14 comedo, 13 colloid (mucous), 15 lobular, and 13 medullary carcinomas were examined with respect to nuclear DNA and estrogen receptor content. In agreement with previous studies, ductal carcinomas were found to exhibit different types of nuclear DNA distribution patterns, i.e., tumors with DNA values in the normal diploid or tetraploid regions indicative of good prognosis (euploid tumors) or those with values exceeding the normal tetraploid region indicative of poor prognosis (aneuploid tumors). The majority of the papillary and colloid tumors were euploid, while comedocarcinomas in general had aneuploid profiles. These findings are in agreement with expected survival within these patient groups. In lobular breast carcinomas, the correlation between the DNA distribution patterns and expected patient survival was less obvious; and in medullary carcinomas where the vast majority of the tumors showed aneuploid DNA profiles, the correlation to expected patient survival was low. Thus, lobular carcinoma in general seems to have a worse prognosis than is expected from nuclear DNA analysis, whereas medullary carcinomas in general seem to carry a better prognosis than indicated from DNA measurements. In agreement with earlier reports there was a good correlation between nuclear DNA content of the tumor cells and cytosol estrogen receptor values, i.e., euploid tumors in general exhibited relatively high receptor levels, whereas aneuploid tumors had low or unmeasurable estrogen receptor levels.