Open Access Research

Tumor characteristics and the clinical outcome of invasive lobular carcinoma compared to infiltrating ductal carcinoma in a Chinese population

A-Yong Cao1,2, Liang Huang1,2, Jiong Wu1,2, Jin-Song Lu1,2, Guang-Yu Liu1,2, Zhen-Zhou Shen1,2, Zhi-Ming Shao1,2 and Gen-Hong Di1,2,3*

Author Affiliations

1 Breast Cancer Institute, Cancer Centre/Cancer Institute, Shanghai, PR, China

2 Department of Oncology, Shanghai Medical College, Institutes of Biomedical Science, Fudan University, Shanghai, PR, China

3 Breast Cancer Institute, Cancer Hospital/Cancer Institute; Department of Oncology, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, 270 Dong’an Road, Shanghai, PR 200032, China

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World Journal of Surgical Oncology 2012, 10:152 doi:10.1186/1477-7819-10-152

Published: 17 July 2012

Abstract

Background

We sought to compare the baseline demographics, standard pathologic factors and long-term clinical outcomes between ILC and infiltrating ductal carcinoma (IDC) using a large database.

Methods

Clinicopathologic features, overall survival (OS), and recurrence/metastasis-free survival (RFS) were compared between 2,202 patients with IDC and 215 patients with ILC.

Results

ILC was significantly more likely to be associated with a favorable phenotype, but the incidence of contralateral breast cancer was higher for ILC patients than for IDC patients (8.4% vs. 3.9%; P =0.001). The frequencies of recurrence/metastasis (P = 0.980) and death (P = 0.064) were similar among patients with IDC and patients with ILC after adjustment for tumor size and nodal status. The median follow-up was 42.8 months.

Conclusions

Chinese women with ILCs do not have better clinical outcomes than their counterparts with IDC. Management decisions should be based on individual patient and tumor biologic characteristics, and not on lobular histology.

Keywords:
Invasive lobular carcinoma; Tumor characteristics; Clinical outcome