Adenocarcinoma of the breast with osseous metaplasia. Report of a case with needle aspiration cytology.
A 68-year-old black female developed a painless left breast mass that increased in size over a nine-month period before the patient sought medical attention; fine needle aspiration biopsy was performed as part of the initial workup. Only occasional malignant cells were present on the slides despite the use of a good aspiration technique on this large mass. The additional finding of rare osteoblasts and multinucleated cells, interpreted as osteoclasts, suggested osseous metaplasia within the lesion. The diagnosis of osseous metaplasia in an infiltrating ductal carcinoma of the breast was therefore suggested by careful cytologic screening of the material from a firm lesion that yielded smears with otherwise inexplicably low cellularity.
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000473:pathology*; D000368:Aged; D001707:Biopsy, Needle; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008679:Metaplasia; D010006:Osteoblasts / Q000473:pathology; D010010:Osteoclasts / Q000473:pathology