Outcomes In Lobular Invasive Carcinoma Of The Breast

A new study has confirmed that invasive lobular carcinoma can be effectively treated just like invasive ductal carcinoma by breast conservation surgery. The study proves that invasive lobular carcinoma does not require any additional preferential therapy compared to invasive ductal carcinoma.

Invasive ductal carcinoma is rare compared to the ductal carcinoma, and currently doctors are treating both subtypes of breast cancer similarly with breast conservation surgery in early stages of the disease. Now there is some proof to the all in one approach by the physicians and surgeons.

These findings appear in the latest issue of CANCER, which is a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. Invasive lobular carcinoma is associated with similar success rates with breast conservation surgery and is not associated with any additional surgeries compared to invasive ductal carcinoma. Some recent studies have suggested invasive lobular carcinoma has suggested that breast-conserving surgery is not appropriate for invasive lobular carcinoma, and this study challenges that finding.

Invasive lobular carcinoma makes up only 10 percent of all breast cancers, and because of this data focusing on invasive lobular carcinoma is scanty. Much of information on mammography screening and breast conservation surgery are based on data from invasive ductal carcinoma which comprises of up to 85 percent of all breast cancers.

Available data has suggested that invasive lobular carcinoma may behave differently compared to invasive ductal carcinoma. Invasive lobular carcinoma is less readily detected by mammogram screening and is typically identified at later stage compared to invasive ductal carcinoma. This causes poor performance for patients with invasive lobular carcinoma. Some recent data has suggested that up to 50 percent of invasive lobular carcinoma patients have more extensive, multi-focal disease than initial examination suggested and therefore require more extensive surgical treatment, such as mastectomy. Because of these reasons invasive lobular carcinoma is perceived to be difficult to treat compared to IDC, though prior studies have suggested no significant difference in BCT success rates.

In the current study Monica Morrow, M.D. of the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia and his colleagues compared the outcomes of 318 invasive lobular carcinoma patients and 634 matched invasive ductal carcinoma patients. As mentioned above the study showed no difference in the outcome with breast conservation surgery between these two subgroups of breast cancer.