CLINICAL REPORTS   

Chirurgia 2000 February;13(1):43-6

Copyright © 2000 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: Italian

Breast carcinoma with signet ring cells. Clinical and morphological observations on a case report

Versaci A., Fedele F., Torre V., Giuffrè M., Leonello G., Terranova M.

In spite of the improvement in diagnosis and treatment, breast cancer is still an important pathologic entity with special characteristics compared with other diseases. The increased incidence of breast carcinoma and the high percentage of deaths suggest the important combination of modern diagnostic procedures. These are useful for a multiparametric evaluation to improve therapy and prognosis of this tumor. Histopathologic and ultrastructural studies may also help to evaluate the more aggressive carcinomas. Thus, infiltrating lobular carcinoma of the breast with Signet Ring Cells (SRCs) is a lesion with a poor prognosis and a high likelihood of metastasis. A case of infiltrating lobular carcinoma with a prominent SRC component in a 73 year old woman is reported. Both immunohistochemical and ultrastructural studies of this unique variant of invasive lobular carcinoma were performed to evaluate its morphologic characteristics.