Adenocystic Carcinoma of the Breast

Abstract

OCCASIONALLY one encounters an extremely rare lesion such as adenocystic carcinoma of the breast. It is the purpose of this paper to review the pertinent medical literature and to present the current opinions concerning the treatment of this disease. Nomenclature Several pseudonyms have been used to describe this interesting lesion. The oldest term, designated by Billroth¹ in 1859, was cylindroma. Stein and Geschickter² called this tumor adenocystic basal-cell carcinoma. Bauer and Fox³ are credited with the descriptive name of adenomyoepithelioma. Foote and Frazell⁴ preferred the term adenocystic carcinoma, and Smout and French⁵ suggested pseudoadenomatous basal cell carcinoma. Based on the judgment of Mitchell Heineman, MD,⁶ I have elected to title this paper "Adenocystic Carcinoma of the Breast." Review of Literature The literature is replete with exhaustive studies and reports concerning adenocystic carcinoma in areas other than breast origin.^3-5,7-10 References to this condition existing