Mucinous qualities

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flannelette
flannelette Member Posts: 984
edited June 2014 in IDC (Invasive Ductal Carcinoma)

I just read a magazine article which says " ...Sheri's diagnosis was invasive ductal carcinoma with mucinous qualities, a rare breast cancer but, fortunately, one that rarely spreads to the lymph nodes..". Seems to me (though I lost it) my pathology report said I had mucinous qualities. Could this shed light on the mystery of why my 4 inch whopper didn't go to any lymph nodes? First I've ever heard of this! anyone know anything else about mucinous qualities? (and all along I thought it was my steely inner willpower or the indole 3 carbinol or all the cabbage juice I drank! lol)

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  • Hindsfeet
    Hindsfeet Member Posts: 2,456
    edited October 2011

    My third dx was puremucinous cancer, idc. It is a less aggressive type of cancer. It can spread into the nodes although this is rare. Look up on the net the Perkins Report. This might help you understand this type of cancer. Was you cancer pure mucinious? What other qualities? Sometimes dcis cells are found around this type of rare cancer. There is an informative thread on this type of cancer I believe in the "Recently Diagnosis" thread.

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  • voraciousreader
    voraciousreader Member Posts: 7,496
    edited October 2011

    Flannelette...  Mucinous breast cancer comes in varieites depending upon how much mucin is contained in the tumor.  If 90% or more of the the tumor contains mucin cancer cells then it is referred to as "Pure" mucinous breast cancer.  The only problem with this diagnosis is that because it is a rare type of breast cancer, pathologists do not see it very often and sometimes there might be a question to whether or not it is "pure" or not. Nowadays with the Oncotype DX test, I don't think the distinction of whether it is "pure" or not is as important as it once was. 

    Which leads me to "mixed" mucinous breast cancer.  A tumor that comprises between 70% and 90% mucin is referred to as "mixed" mucinous breast cancer.  Mind you, in both "pure" and "mixed" you can have some "traditional" idc-nos cancer cells in the tumor. And that leads me to

    "Invasive Ductal Carcinoma with mucinous features,"  the type mentioned on your pathology report which is a tumor comprising MOSTLY traditional IDC cells and less than 70% mucin cancer cells.

    "Pure" mucinous breast cancer, along with several other rare "Pure" types of breast cancer (Tubular, Papillary) are consider "Favorable" histological sub-types of breast cancer.  "Favorable" means that they rarely metastize.  And yes, they can grow very large without ever spreading.  In the medical literature there is one sister who had a Pure mucinous breast cancer that was 23 cm and it did NOT spread.  I saw the MRI of the tumor and it looked like a third breast.  Really.  I'm not kidding.  Enormous.

    Bottom line is that there are three different types of classifications for mucinous breast cancers with "pure" being the most "favorable."  Keep in mind though, with the OncotypeDX test, there are many sisters who have traditional IDC-NOS tumors and their OncotypeDX scores are lower than those with "Pure" mucinous breast cancer. 

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  • Patriotic
    Patriotic Member Posts: 281
    edited December 2011

    I had IDC with Mucinous features. I also had nodal involvement so, I can attest to the fact that you cannot assume it is innocuous in any way.

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  • drwendy
    drwendy Member Posts: 47
    edited December 2011
    My IDC came with the same report, but my surgeon said she doubted that I truly had mucinous BC, she said that often in a larger mass there is some cell necrosis where it runs out of blood supply, the cells die and that gives them a mucinous appearance.  That said, I have (had, yay chemo shrinkage!) a nearly 6 cm mass that does not appear to have spread to any nodes (based on CT, which is just a guess).  Good luck!
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