The clinicopathological and prognostic characteristics of mucinous micropapillary carcinoma of the breast.

Background: Mucinous micropapillary carcinoma (MMPC) is a unique subtype of breast cancer, and there is as yet no detailed report on the clinical characteristics of MMPC.

Methods: MMPC, pure mucinous breast carcinoma (PMBC), and invasive micropapillary carcinoma (IMPC) samples were enrolled simultaneously, and immunohistochemistry analysis was performed to explore the clinicopathological attributes of MMPC. Moreover, survival analyses of MMPC were performed among the MMPC, PMBC, and IMPC groups and within the MMPC group.

Results: The results showed that MMPC demonstrated distinct pathological features and that vascular invasion and lymph node metastasis were two significant clinical attributes of MMPC. MMPC leads to a shorter survival time than PMBC but an increased survival time compared to IMPC, while the tumor-node-metastasis stage and lymph node metastasis were identified as two independent prognostic elements for disease-free survival in discerning the MMPC prognosis.

Conclusions: The gathered data implied that further understanding and classification of MMPC may provide better individualized therapeutic strategies for MMPC treatment.