The pathology of breast cancer in women irradiated for acute postpartum mastitis

Abstract

The gross and microscopic pathology of breast cancers in women irradiated for acute postpartum mastitis was compared to the breast cancers found in the sisters of the irradiated women. Fifty-one cancers in 50 irradiated women and 25 cancers in 24 nonirradiated women were examined. In considering the lesions in the two populations, the size, location, histologic type, histologic grade, inflammatory response, lymphatic and blood vascular invasion, nipple involvement, axillary lymph node metastases, and menopausal status at the time of diagnosis were statistically indistinguishable. The only parameter that was different in the two populations was the desmoplastic response to the malignant lesion (P = 0.04). The control population had more marked fibrosis within the cancers compared with the irradiated women. With the exception of stromal response, this study shows that breast cancer in irradiated women is similar in the parameters evaluated to breast cancer in a control population.