Duct elastosis in infiltrating carcinoma of the breast

Duct elastosis was studied in 219 patients subjected to radical mastectomy for infiltrating carcinoma of the breast, with a 10-year follow-up. Duct elastosis is a frequent finding in infiltrating breast cancer (65% of our cases). It develops in tumors of all three grades of malignancy, but it is more frequent in tumors of low grade malignancy (76% and 74% in grades I and II, respectively, and 47% in grade III tumors). In spite of their greater incidence in low malignancy tumors, the elastotic cases have a greater metastatic ratio than the non-elastotic cases (66% vs 45%). The elastotic cases also contain a significantly greater proportion of scirrhous tumors than the non-elastotic cases (86% vs. 32%). Duct elastosis and scirrhous reaction are two processes which develop in parallel, but are not related etiologically. They seem to be correlated with more advanced stages of the neoplastic disease. The influence of duct elastosis upon the ten year survival of the patients is unfavorable. this influence is not direct, and it is particularly evident in the metastatic cases. It seems to be related to the greater duration of the neoplastic disease and to the slow clinical course of tumors of low degree of malignancy.