Surface topography and ultrastructure correlation between human breast infiltrating ductal carcinoma of non special type and coexisting human breast infiltrating ductal carcinoma of non special type with in situ comedo carcinoma.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the topographical and ultrastructural correlations and differences between breast infiltrating ductal carcinoma (DC) non-special type (NST) and coexisting infiltrating DC NST with in situ comedo, in order to possibly detect differences in their metastatic potential.


METHODS
The material examined derived from 22 women with breast cancer. Sixteen breast infiltrating DC NST tissue samples and 6 breast infiltrating DC NST with in situ comedo were studied with primary culture techniques, using transmission and scanning electron microscopy methods.


RESULTS
The surface topography from infiltrating DC NST cells showed microvilli, blebs, ruffles, short and long projections. These features were absent in the normal breast cells. The intensity of these features was dependent on several histological characteristics. Also, the above features in coexisting DC NST with in situ comedo were related to more aggressive cases. The findings concerning the surface topography features have been also found in the ultrastructural level. A very interesting point was that these features consisted partly of cytoplasmic material.


CONCLUSIONS
We believe that the presence of the features described above might be related to the metastatic potential of breast cancer and in particular to DC NST with in situ comedo.
Voloudakis
G E
GE
Department of Cell Biology, Molecular Biology and Electron Microscopy, "Saint Savas" Cancer Hospital, Athens, Greece.
Baltatzis
G E
GE
Stefanou
D
D
Agnantis
N J
NJ
Voloudakis-Baltatzis
I E
IE