The ductal phenotypic expression of the E-cadherin/catenin complex in tubulolobular carcinoma of the breast: an immunohistochemical and clinicopathologic study

Abstract

Tubulolobular carcinoma is a type of mammary carcinoma that displays an admixture of invasive tubules and lobular-like cells. Previous reports have shown it to share clinical similarities to lobular carcinoma, whereas more recent studies have shown it to be E-cadherin positive. The aim of the current study was to further explore the immunophenotype of tubulolobular carcinoma, and to document its natural behavior. Nineteen cases of tubulolobular carcinoma and 10 cases each of tubular and lobular carcinoma were retrieved for comparison analysis. Immunohistochemistry was performed with antibodies against estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, HER2/neu, 34bE12, E-cadherin, and the catenins. Twenty-five percent of patients with tubulolobular carcinoma presented with greater than stage I disease, compared to 0 and 60% of patients with tubular and lobular carcinoma, respectively. Two patients with tubulolobular carcinoma had tumor recurrence, one of whom also developed metastasis. The majority of all carcinomas were estrogen and progesterone receptor positive. Ecadherin displayed membranous staining in all tubular and tubulolobular carcinomas, and was negative in all lobular carcinomas. Half of each carcinoma subtype displayed granular cytoplasmic 34bE12 immunoreactivity. a-Catenin exhibited partial or complete membranous staining in all tubulolobular and tubular carcinomas, and was negative in all lobular carcinomas. b-Catenin displayed membranous staining in tubulolobular and tubular carcinomas, whereas all lobular carcinomas had coarse cytoplasmic immunoreactivity. p120 and c-catenin displayed membranous staining in 100% of tubulolobular and tubular carcinomas and cytoplasmic staining in 100% of lobular carcinomas. Tubulolobular carcinoma of the breast is thus a distinct type of mammary carcinoma that displays both tubular and lobular patterns histologically but displays the membranous Ecadherin/catenin complex characteristic of the ductal immunophenotype. Tubulolobular carcinoma appears to be more aggressive than tubular carcinoma, as 16% of patients had lymph node metastases, although all were alive at a mean follow-up of 40 months. The distinction between ductal and lobular carcinomas of the breast can usually be made by applying typical cytologic and architectural criteria, such as tubule formation and pleomorphism in the former, and dyscohesion of tumor cells in the latter. However, some carcinomas display overlapping features, making this distinction difficult. Tubulolobular carcinoma is a distinct type of mammary carcinoma that, as its name suggests, displays an admixture of minimally pleomorphic invasive tubules, as seen in classic tubular carcinoma, and dyscohesive cells with low-nuclear grade, as seen in classic lobular carcinoma. As tubulolobular carcinomas are rare neoplasms, representing less than 3% of all breast cancers, relatively few studies aimed at their analysis have been performed, and thus little is known about their behavior. A study published in 1977 by Fisher et al 1 concluded that these ...

Bench to bedside and back again: Molecular mechanisms of α-catenin function and roles in tumorigenesis

“…These resulting juxta-membrane α-catenin dimers bundle actin filaments and suppress actin assembly by inhibiting the Arp2/3 complex; under these conditions, cell-cell adhesion is high and cell migration/membrane dynamics are low. [47,51,86,[107][108][109][110][111][112][113][114][115][116][117][118][119] Histological type and growth [51], grade [47,112,117], stage [47], metastasis [47], survival [47,111] Survival [47], reduced more frequently in diffuse tumors [51] …”

Tubulo- lobular carcinoma: a rare mixed invasive carcinoma of

“…Also, they observed that these TLC tumors exhibited complete membranous staining with both α and β catenin compared to the cytoplasmic expression observed in lobular carcinomas. 3 The main differential diagnosis for TLC is Tubular carcinoma and Mixed ductal and lobular carcinoma. They are differentiated from each other by histopathological features.…”

Presence of Basement Membrane Material around the Tubules of Tubulolobular Carcinoma

“…They opted for a variant of lobular carcinoma on the basis of the cellular composition and an outcome worse than that of pure tubular carcinoma (although better than that of classical lobular carcinoma) [1]. Since then, a number of studies have evaluated this rare histological subtype of breast carcinoma, and most have concluded that it has overlapping features of both ductal and lobular cancers, but is better considered as a variant of ductal [2][3][4][5] or even tubular carcinoma [2]. Likewise, reports suggest that tubulolobular carcinomas are always [2,3,5] [5].…”