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Invasive Mucinous Carcinoma

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  • First Online:
Breast Pathology

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Pathology ((EP))

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Synonyms

Colloid carcinoma; Gelatinous carcinoma; Mucinous adenocarcinoma; Mucoid carcinoma

Definition

Mucinous carcinoma (MC) of the breast forms part of the special type of breast cancers and is characterized histologically by aggregates or clusters of typically uniform cells floating within copious amounts of extracellular mucin (Bussolati and Sapino 2012). In order to qualify for a diagnosis of MC, the mucinous component should represent over 90% of the tumor (Harris et al. 2011).

Clinical Features

  • Incidence

    Pure mucinous carcinoma (PMC) of the breast represents one of the rarest subgroups (Park et al. 2010) and accounts for approximately 2% of all breast carcinomas (Bussolati and Sapino 2012; Harris et al. 2011).

  • Age

    Compared to conventional invasive breast carcinoma, PMC tends to affect an older population, typically in the postmenopausal age group (Park et al. 2010).

  • Sex

    While MC of the breast primarily affects women, isolated case reports of male breast MC exist. Furthermore,...

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pathology Department, Mater Dei Hospital, Msida, Malta

    James S. DeGaetano & Ian Said Huntingford

Authors
  1. James S. DeGaetano
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  2. Ian Said Huntingford
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to James S. DeGaetano .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Unit of Pathology, Candiolo Cancer Institute FPO-IRCCS, Candiolo, Italy

    Anna Sapino

  2. Department of Medical Sciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy

    Anna Sapino

  3. 2nd Department of Pathology, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary

    Janina Kulka

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DeGaetano, J.S., Said Huntingford, I. (2020). Invasive Mucinous Carcinoma. In: Sapino, A., Kulka, J. (eds) Breast Pathology. Encyclopedia of Pathology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62539-3_4719

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62539-3_4719

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-62538-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-62539-3

  • eBook Packages: MedicineReference Module Medicine

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