Breast cancer classification

Breast cancer is a type of cancer. It is a disease with an increasingly high incidence rate nowadays. It can also be said to be a disease that poses a great threat to women's health and even their lives. Of course, due to the different causes of breast cancer and the specific circumstances of the disease, breast cancer is also divided into different types. Below, we will introduce in detail the four most common types of breast cancer!

1. Breast ductal carcinoma

This is the most common type of breast cancer. Ductal carcinoma of the breast may not be confined to the ducts but may spread to nearby structures. The cancer cells are confined to the ducts and have not broken through the basement membrane of the duct wall. The cancer cells in the ducts can be arranged in solid, cribriform, hypopapillary or tubular shapes and are no longer divided into subtypes.

2. Invasive ductal carcinoma

It is the most common form of breast cancer, according to the American Cancer Society, and is diagnosed when the cancer has spread beyond the ducts to surrounding wall structures and even beyond the ducts, becoming metastatic cancer.

There are also some rare special types of invasive ductal carcinoma, such as tubular carcinoma of the breast, mucinous adenocarcinoma, papillary carcinoma, medullary carcinoma of the breast, cribriform carcinoma of the breast, metaplasia of the breast and mixed carcinoma.

3. Lobular carcinoma

Lobular carcinoma occurs in the lobules. The cancer cells have not broken through the terminal ducts or the basement membrane of the alveoli. The lobules are enlarged, with more ducts and alveoli, and they become noticeably thicker and filled with non-polarized cancer cells. The tubules, alveolar cavities and myoepithelial cells disappear, the cancer cells become slightly larger, more uniform in shape and size, and have richer cytoplasm. It is usually called lobular carcinoma in situ.

4. Triple-negative breast cancer

These are all behaviors of breast cancer. As for basal cell breast cancer, the gene is usually HER-2/neu negative, and the hormone receptors (including ER and PR) are also negative, so it is also called "triple-negative breast cancer." "Triple-negative" breast cancer is almost similar to breast cancer with "basal cell-like" genetic expression. Patients with this subtype have an extremely poor prognosis and are prone to early metastasis and metastasis to distant organs. It is currently believed that myoepithelial cells may be the origin of this type of breast cancer.