Malignancy-associated changes in lactiferous duct epithelium.
OBJECTIVE
To determine whether cells from histologically normal appearing epithelium of the lactiferous duct from women with a remote ductal lesion in the breast provide any clues indicating the existence of such a lesion.


METHODS
Tissue sections cut to 4 microns and stained with hematoxylin and eosin were prepared from duct tissue of 20 women with breast lesions and of 20 women free of any such lesion who had undergone mammoplastic procedures or resection for benign reasons. One hundred nuclei were measured from each case. Measures of nuclear deviation from normal were computed, discriminant functions were derived, and multivariate significance tests were conducted.


RESULTS
Nuclei from histologically normal appearing regions of lactiferous duct epithelium from women harboring distant lesions exhibited changes in the distribution pattern of their nuclear chromatin, indicating the presence of these lesions. The statistical significance of these changes was documented. The changes were clearly evident in all 20 subjects with lesions and were not observed in 19 of the 20 subjects without lesions.


CONCLUSIONS
The results suggest that studies aimed at detecting malignancy-associated changes in cells collected by ductal lavage might lead to a minimally invasive screening procedure for breast lesions.
Department of Pathology, Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, U.K. n.anderson@queens-belfast.ac.uk
Neil
N
Anderson
J
J
Houghton
S J
SJ
Kirk
Denise
D
Frank
James
J
Ranger-Moore
David S
DS
Alberts
Deborah
D
Thompson
Peter H
PH
Bartels
D000328:Adult; D001706:Biopsy; D018270:Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000473:pathology; D002843:Chromatin; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007620:Karyometry; D042361:Mammary Glands, Human / Q000473:pathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008875:Middle Aged; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D016008:Statistical Distributions; D007507:Therapeutic Irrigation
D002843:Chromatin