Clinicopathologic hallmarks of mammary tubular carcinoma.

ABSTRACT

Tubular carcinoma of the human breast is a rather uncommon neoplasm, which is characterized by particular histopathologic features and which seems to be either "scored down" (as grade I carcinoma) or overdiagnosed. Since this special variant of mammary cancer has been shown to respond more favorably to therapy than do common infiltrating carcinomas, its recognition as a genuine entity is important. Nineteen cases were studied and compared with the 110 tubular carcinomas reported in the literature. The basic clinicopathologic and histopathologic characteristics of true tubular carcinoma are discussed.