Ductal Vs Lobular Breast Cancer

January 8, 2023

0

While The Number Of Cases Of Breast Cancer Is Increasing Day By Day Newer Innovations Are Emerging To Help Increase The Chances Of Survival Of Patients

Invasive Ductal and Lobular Breast Cancer, Is a Combination Possible?

Cancer is not only a health concern but it can impact ones physical and mental well-being. Breast cancer is one of the most common and prevalent forms of cancer in women. Cases of breast cancer are increasing worldwide and it is the primary cause of death in women. As per Globocan 2020 report, every year in India, there are more than 1.3 lakh new cases and more than 90,000 deaths caused by breast cancer.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , breast cancer is a disease where cells in the breast grow out of control. When breast cancer spreads to other parts of the body, it is said to be metastasised.

While the number of cases of breast cancer is increasing day by day, newer innovations and therapies are emerging to help reduce the disease and to increase the chances of survival of patients.

Types of breast cancer

Invasive Ductal Carcinoma: The cancer cells begin in the ducts and then grow outside into the other parts of the breast tissues.

Invasive Lobular Carcinoma: The cancer cells begin in the lobules and then spread to the breast tissues that are close by. These can also spread to other parts of the body.

Warning signs and symptoms of breast cancer

– New lump formation in the breast or armpit

– Breast size or shape changes

– Pain in the breast area

– Swelling, dimpling or irritation in the breast

– Changes in the skin or nipple, such as dimpling or redness

– Blood discharge from nipples

How to reduce the risk of breast cancer?

Does Chemo Work On Lobular Breast Cancer

Unfortunately, lobular breast cancers dont always respond to chemotherapy as well as other breast cancers, and some forms are also less responsive to hormone therapy. For this reason, it is important that we find new and more effective treatments to give these patients the best chances of survival.

What Are The Symptoms Of Invasive Ductal Carcinoma

Like other breast cancers, IDC may present as a lump that you or your doctor can feel on a breast exam. But in many cases, at first, there may be no symptoms, Wright says.

That is why it is important to have screening mammograms to detect breast cancers such as invasive ductal carcinoma. A mammogram may detect a lump that is too small for you to feel, or suspicious calcifications in the breast, either of which will lead to further testing.

According to Wright, the following are possible signs of invasive ductal carcinoma and other breast cancers. If you notice any of these, you should contact your doctor right away for further evaluation:

Lump in the breast
Nipple discharge, other than breast milk
Scaly or flaky skin on the nipple or an ulceration on the skin of the breast or nipple. These can be signs of Pagets disease, a different kind of breast cancer that can occur along with IDC.
Lumps in the underarm area
Changes in the appearance of the nipple or breast that are different from your normal monthly changes

Don’t Miss: What Is Primary Breast Cancer

Survivorship Care After Invasive Lobular Carcinoma Treatment

Because of better diagnostic tests and advances in cancer treatments, more people are living longer than ever after being diagnosed with any type of cancer, including breast cancer. Experts estimate that there are more than 3.8 million breast cancer survivors in the United States.

Still, because of treatments theyve received, many breast cancer survivors have a higher risk of developing other diseases as they age, including high blood pressure, heart disease, and osteoporosis. To make sure breast cancer survivors are regularly screened for these and other diseases, experts have developed the idea of survivorship care planning.

Survivorship care plans are written documents made up of two parts.

The first part is a treatment summary, a record of all the breast cancer treatments youve received.

The second part is basically a roadmap of what you can expect in the years after treatment, including any late or long-term side effects you might have, and a schedule of how youll be monitored for these side effects and other health conditions. This part of the survivorship care plan usually includes:

the tests youll have
which doctors will order the tests
Advertisement
a schedule of when the tests will be done
resources, if you need more information

Recommended Reading: Is It Possible To Get Breast Cancer At 16

Hierarchical Clustering On The Basis Of Genes Identified By Supervised Approaches

Unsupervised clustering using the 39 clones identified by MaxT, SAM, or PAM showed good discrimination of lobular from ductal tumors . All of the lobular tumors except 2 were found in a large cluster consisting of 15 lobular tumors and 21 ductal tumors. Within this cluster, a smaller subcluster of 9 tumors was evident and consisted entirely of lobular samples. Clustering based on clones identified only by MaxT, SAM, or PAM all led to similar tumor grouping, with enrichment for lobular tumors in one tumor group .

How Is Invasive Ductal Carcinoma Diagnosed

Several tests can help your doctor identify and diagnose IDC, including:

Physical exam. Manual examination of your breasts by your doctor can detect lumps and other changes. If your doctor feels a lump or thickening, he or she may recommend further tests to rule out IDC.

Digital mammography is an improved method for breast imaging that is performed much like a regular mammogram. However, it is better than conventional mammography in detecting cancer in younger patients and in those with dense breast tissue. Electronic images can be enhanced with computer-aided detection systems to spot masses, calcifications and abnormalities associated with cancer.

Breast ultrasound uses sound waves to examine the breast tissue and gauge blood flow. It is safe for examining pregnant patients, and does not use radiation.

Breast magnetic resonance imaging uses a large magnet, radio waves and a computer that can detect small breast lesions, and may be especially useful in examining patients with a high risk of breast cancer, such as those with BRCA1, BRCA2 or other gene mutations associated with cancer.

Magnitude Of Benefit From Use Of Trastuzumab

Overexpression or amplification of the HER2 gene occurs in 35% of classic ILC . Furthermore, a number of studies suggest that patients with ILC variants, such as mixed-nonclassic ILC, have higher rates of HER2 positivity . Despite HER2 positivity being an independent prognostic factor associated with worse survival outcomes for patients diagnosed with ILC , few available data describe the magnitude of benefit of anti-HER2 therapies in this particular subtype.

Hierarchical Clustering Of Lobular Versus Ductal Tumors

Unsupervised hierarchical clustering did not distinguish the 17 lobular tumors from the 109 ductal tumors. Whereas the normal samples clustered together in one group, lobular cases were found in multiple groups. As was found with the lobular only clustering, a tumor group characterized by low expression levels of proliferation-associated genes was evident. Normal breast samples were confined to this cluster, which also included lobular and ductal cases.

Lobular tumors frequently have absent or altered expression of E-cadherin. Of the 17 lobular tumors, 15 showed low levels of E-cadherinby expression microarray analysis. The exceptions were cases B638 and B413, which showed weak to moderate levels of expression by microarray. Although B638 did not show any staining for E-cadherinby immunohistochemistry, B413 showed diminished but positive membranous staining. All of the other lobular cases showed no E-cadherinstaining by immunohistochemistry. Histological review of B413 revealed mixed invasive lobular cancer and ductal carcinoma in situ.

Expression of E-cadherinwas associated with expression of ZNF217 . E-cadherin and ZNF217 are not located on a common chromosomal region and have not been reported previously to have coregulated expression.

Environmental And Lifestyle Risk Factors

Dr. Shih on Treating Lobular vs Ductal Breast Cancers

Most breast cancers are related to female hormones, and therefore any factor that increases exposure to these hormones is a potential risk factor. In particular, reproductive factors associated with increased exposure to endogenous estrogens produced by the ovaries, such as earlier menarche, late menopause, low parity, and late age at first birth, are recognized breast cancer risk factors . Similarly, women exposed to exogenous hormones are often at increased risk .

Lifestyle factors are also associated with breast cancer. There is an estimated 10% increase in risk per 10 g of ethanol consumed every day . Being overweight or obese is also associated with breast cancer risk, but only in postmenopausal women, with a gain of 5 kg/m2 in body mass index resulting in an 8% increase in disease risk . On the contrary, excess weight is associated with a decrease in risk in premenopausal women. Again, these associations can be explained by hormonal factors: alcohol consumption and postmenopausal obesity are related to higher circulating estrogen levels . In postmenopause, elevated estrogen levels are most probably due to extraglandular production in the adipose tissue, whereas in premenopause, the decrease in female hormone synthesis associated with anovulatory cycles in obese women likely explains the inverse association with breast cancer .

You May Like: Does Breast Cancer Hurt In Early Stages

Whos Affected By Lobular Breast Cancer

Women and people assigned female at birth who are age 55 and older are most likely to develop invasive lobular carcinoma. Men and people who are assigned male at birth can develop ILC, too, though its rare. Transwomen have a higher risk of developing breast cancer than cisgender men. Conversely, transmen have a lower risk compared to cisgender women.

Unlike invasive ductal carcinoma , invasive lobular carcinoma usually occurs later in life. Many people are in their early 60s at the time of their diagnosis.

What Is The Prognosis For Invasive Ductal Carcinoma

Your doctor will discuss what you can expect based on the characteristics of the invasive ductal carcinoma and the effectiveness of your treatment.

Specialty centers such as Johns Hopkins Medicines Breast Health Services can offer integrated teams of breast cancer specialists who have skill and experience in surgery, breast reconstruction, chemotherapy, biologic targeted therapy, radiation therapy and other hormonal therapies.

Medical science is making great strides forward in treating breast cancer, allowing our surgeries to be less invasive and improving surgical outcomes and overall quality of life, Wright says.

Don’t Miss: How Many Chemo Sessions For Breast Cancer

How Do Healthcare Providers Treat Lobular Breast Cancer

There are two main categories of ILC treatment local and systemic. Local treatments target the tumor and the surrounding areas, while systemic treatments travel through your body to kill any cancer cells that have spread throughout it.

Local treatments for invasive lobular carcinoma

Local treatments include:

Surgery. This is usually the first line of treatment recommended for invasive lobular carcinoma. A lumpectomy or mastectomy is performed to remove the tumor. During the procedure, your surgeon will also check to see if the cancer has spread to your lymph nodes.
Radiation therapy. This treatment focuses high-energy radiation rays at your breast, underarm regions and surrounding areas. Radiation therapy is often recommended after surgery to destroy any remaining cancer cells.

Systemic treatments for lobular breast cancer

Systemic treatments include:

What are treatment side effects?

As with any cancer treatment, people who undergo treatment for invasive lobular carcinoma may experience some side effects. These side effects depend on the type of treatment you undergo, how advanced your cancer is, your bodys healing capacity and other factors.

People who undergo surgery for invasive lobular carcinoma may develop infections, blood clots, allergies to anesthesia or other complications. Radiation therapy is often associated with fatigue, nausea and skin irritation.

People who undergo chemotherapy may develop several side effects, including:

Fertility problems.

Pathological Assessment And Definition Of Molecular Subtypes

Histopathological diagnoses of ILC and IDC using hematoxylineosin staining were made by several pathologists at Aichi Cancer Center Hospital. Hormone receptor status was determined by immunohistochemical staining. Hormone receptor-positive status was defined as a score of equal or greater than 3 of ER on the Allred Score . HER2 positive was defined as a Herceptest-score of 3+ or fluorescent in situ hybridization positive following a Herceptest-score of 2+. The definition of luminal type was determined as ER positive and HER2 negative. Histological grading was performed using the Nottingham histological grading system. Tumor stage was stratified according to the AJCC 7th edition TNM staging system for breast cancer. The dataset supporting the conclusions of this article is included within the article and its additional file .

Recommended Reading: How Fast Does Stage 2 Breast Cancer Spread

Hyperplasia Of The Breast

Hyperplasia is an overgrowth of the cells that line the lobules or ducts inside the breast. It is not cancer, but some types of hyperplasia are linked with a higher risk of developing breast cancer .

Hyperplasia can be described as either usual or atypical, based on how the cells look under a microscope.

In usual ductal hyperplasia, there is an overgrowth of cells lining the ducts in the breast, but the cells look very close to normal.
In atypical hyperplasia , the cells look more distorted and abnormal. This can be either atypical ductal hyperplasia or atypical lobular hyperplasia .

Treatment For Early And Locally Advanced Invasive Breast Cancers

Treatment for early and locally advanced invasive breast cancer includes some combination of surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, HER2-targeted therapy and/or other drug therapies.

The specific treatments depend on the cancer stage and the characteristics of the tumor, such as hormone receptor status and HER2 status.

Patient And Tumor Characteristics

We identified 1,998 cases of IDC and 115 cases of ILC after excluding patients according to the criteria described above as well as cases of carcinoma in situ. Among these, the number of cases of IDC and ILC with luminal subtype were 1,661 and 104, respectively. Among ILC, 3 % were hormone receptor positive and HER2 positive and 2 % were hormone receptor negative and HER2 positive, and 5 % were triple negative. The median follow-up time was 64 months . The clinical and pathological tumor characteristics of luminal IDC and luminal ILC are shown in Table . The tumor size of luminal ILC was larger than that of luminal IDC . Luminal ILC was more likely to have a lower histological grade than luminal IDC .

Table 1 Patient characteristics

Positive margins were more frequently found in luminal ILC than in luminal IDC . The majority of patients with luminal ILC were treated with adjuvant hormonal therapy. In addition, those with luminal ILC were more likely to receive adjuvant hormonal therapy than those with luminal IDC . However, there were no significant differences in other characteristics between the two groups.

Other Genes And Future Perspectives

Lobular Vs Ductal Breast Cancer

Over 80 other breast cancer susceptibility genes and loci have been identified in the past few years, but again none have entered clinical practice either because of the difficulty in interpreting results from sequencing analyses or because the RR associated with the mutated alleles is so low that there is at best limited clinical relevance . Only one low-penetrance variant was specifically associated with ILC in a pooled, post hoc analysis of 36 casecontrol studies .

Learn More About Lobular Breast Cancer And What Bcrf Is Doing To Accelerate Lifesaving Research

Invasive lobular carcinoma, also referred to as invasive lobular breast cancer or simply lobular carcinoma/breast cancer, is the second most common type of breast cancer after invasive ductal carcinoma . The location where the cancer originates distinguishes ductal vs. lobular breast cancer: Invasive ductal carcinoma begins in milk ducts whereas invasive lobular carcinoma begins in lobules .

Lobular breast cancer represents 10 to 15 percent of all invasive breast cancers. Over the past two decades, incidence rates of lobular carcinoma have increased. An estimated 43,700 cases of invasive lobular breast cancer were diagnosed in 2021. Despite its prevalence, our understanding of the unique biology of lobular breast cancer is still emerging.

Lobular carcinoma is treatable but has a unique biology that affects symptoms, diagnosis, and therapeutic strategies. BCRF is working to better understand these challenges and advance lobular breast cancer researchand in just the last few years, say advocates and researchers like BCRF investigator Dr. Steffi Oesterreich, has made terrific progress. Our updated research regarding lobular carcinoma will help more patients around the world to find new treatments everyday.

What is invasive lobular carcinoma?

Lobular Carcinoma Diagnosis and Symptoms

How is lobular carcinoma diagnosed?

Where does lobular breast cancer spread?

Selected References:

Diagnosing Invasive Lobular Breast Cancer

In many women the cancer is found during breast screening.

Its important that you see your GP if you have any symptoms. They may refer you to a specialist breast clinic. At the breast clinic the doctor or specialist nurse takes your medical history and examines your breasts. They also feel for any swollen lymph nodes under your arms and at the base of your neck.

You have some of the following tests:

a biopsy a small sample of cells or tissue is taken from your breast and looked at under a microscope
a breast MRI scan this scan uses magnetic fields to create images of the breast tissue

Read more about breast cancer tests

You May Like: How Is Breast Cancer Caused

What Causes Lobular Breast Cancer

Lobular carcinoma breast cancer Stock Illustration

Experts know that ILC occurs when cells in your breast develop mutations in their DNA. But they arent exactly sure what causes those mutations to occur. There are factors that could increase your risk for invasive lobular carcinoma, including:

Age. Most people who are diagnosed with invasive lobular carcinoma are over the age of 55.
Sex. Women and people AFAB are more likely to develop ILC.
Hormone therapy. Women and people AFAB who use hormone therapy after menopause may have an increased risk of invasive lobular carcinoma.
Genetic factors. Certain inherited genes could play a role in whether or not you get breast cancer. A rare condition called hereditary diffuse gastric cancer syndrome can increase your risk for both invasive lobular carcinoma and stomach cancer.

How does invasive lobular carcinoma spread?

The term invasive means the cancer started in the lobules or ducts of your breast, but spread to surrounding breast tissue. Eventually, the cancer can also spread to lymph nodes, organs and other areas throughout your body.

Recommended Reading: Can Aluminum In Deodorant Cause Breast Cancer

Previous articleTreatment For Her2 Breast Cancer

Next articleSigns Of Breast Cancer Recurrence