title: Clinical impacts of histological subtyping primary breast cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Treatment decisions in breast cancer depend on TNM classification and the assessment of additional variables with have an impact on survival. We examined whether histological subtyping breast cancer as either ductal or lobular is related to disease outcome.
  
  
  METHODS
  We examined a large data base of 14198 breast cancer patients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Histological sub-classification of invasive breast cancer as either ductal or lobular is not correlated with disease outcome. However, the data further showed that invasive lobular carcinomas have a higher probability of being oestrogen receptor (ER)- and progesterone receptor (PR)-positive and a lower probability of being c-erbB2-positive. They also showed a higher average age at the time of diagnosis in comparison with invasive ductal carcinoma. Local recurrence rates were lower in invasive lobular carcinoma in comparison with invasive ductal carcinoma (3.5% vs. 6.2%; p = 0.031). The multivariable Cox regression analysis showed that ER, PR, nodal status, grade and tumour size predicted disease outcome with statistical significance, while the histological subtype (invasive ductal or lobular) was not a significant predictor of disease outcome.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Histological sub-classification of invasive breast cancer as either ductal or lobular is not correlated with disease outcome. On the other hand our data gives some indication that lobular and ductal breast cancer appear to be different biological entities.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Digital Medicine, Stuttgart, Germany.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fritz
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Klenk
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Goletz
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gerteis
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Simon
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Brinkmann
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Heidemann
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lütttgen
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ott
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Alscher
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schwab
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dippon
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000145:classification* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D018270:Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D018275:Carcinoma, Lobular / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen / Q000096:biosynthesis; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone / Q000096:biosynthesis
chemical_list: D011960:Receptors, Estrogen; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone