Mammography and morphobiologic characteristics of human breast cancer

A comparative analysis was performed to verify a possible correlation between mammographic features and morphobiologic characteristics of the tumor in a series of 176 invasive primary breast cancer patients.

Breast cancers were grouped according to mammographic features as follows: tumor mass with spiculated borders; tumor mass with well-circumscribed borders; tumor with density alteration of parenchyma with no clear borders; a cluster of microcalcifications as the only sign of tumor presence; tumor without mammographic abnormality. The tumor tissue biologic characteristics investigated were: hormone receptor content, tumor proliferative activity, DNA content and cytohistologic tumor-grade differentiation.

Spiculated tumors showed a significantly higher percentage of estrogen-receptor-positive cases with respect to circumscribed tumors, independently of the patient's menopausal status. Tumors with only microcalcifications were all from premenopausal patients and showed a significantly higher percentage of progesterone-receptor-positive cases (83%). Tumor proliferative activity did not significantly differ in the 5 mammographic breast cancer groups; aneuploidy was less frequent in tumors with spiculated borders than in mammographic types (39% vs 57%; p = 0.05); percentages of G1-G2-G3 tumors did not differ significantly among the mammographic groups considered.

Certain relationships between mammographic features and biologic characteristics could be of potential clinical interest and stimulate more detailed studies on this issue.