Cystic adenoma of the breast
A cystic adenoma, (cystoma, or simply cyst adenoma), refers to a benign neoplastic growth of adeno or glandular cells in the breast called an ‘adenoma‘, which also has cystic elements. In other words, within the adenoma various cystic spaces have developed due to the dilation of acinar or ductal structures. When a cystic adenoma has malignant cells, it is usually referred to as a cystadenocarcinoma.
Cyst adenoma is a pure epithelial neoplasm
An adenoma is a purely epithelial breast neoplasm, and there are a number of different types of breast adenomas. These include tubular adenomas, apocrine adenomas, ductal adenomas, pleomorphic adenomas, and lactating adenomas. If any of these subtypes of adenomas have cystic features, the word ‘cyst‘ or ‘cystic‘ might be inserted before of into the rest of the name. Cystic adenomas are actually more common in the ovaries than in the breast. Mucinous cyst adenomas are one of the more common benign ovarian tumors, but do occur in the breast as well.
For further reading, I suggest you visit a couple pages. Visit this page for pleomorphic adenoma of the breast, this page which has information on adenoid cystic carcinoma, go to this page for breast adenocarcinoma, this page that has info on breast apocrine adenoma, as well as this page with breast adenocarcinoma with spindle cell metaplasia information.
References
- Cole P, Mark Elwood J, Kaplan SD. Incidence rates and risk factors of benign breast neoplasms. Am J Epidemiol 1978;108:112–120.
- Fitzgibbons PL, Henson DE, Hutter RV. Benign breast changes and the risk for subsequent breast cancer: an update of the 1985 consensus statement. Cancer Committee of the College of American Pathologists. Arch Pathol Lab Med 1998;122:1053–1055.
- Bartow SA, Pathak DR, Black WC et al. Prevalence of benign, atypical, and malignant breast lesions in populations at different risk for breast cancer. A forensic autopsy study. Cancer 1987;60:2751–2760
- Shaaban AM, Sloane JP, West CS et al. Histopathologic types of benign breast lesions and risk of breast cancer. Am J Surg Pathol 2002;26: 421–430.
- Warren, JC., The New Classification of Benign Tumors of the Breast, with an Illustrative Case. New England Journal of Medicine.
- Honma N, Sakamoto G, Ikenaga M, Kuroiwa K, Younes M, Takubo K. Mucinous cystadenocarcinoma of the breast: a case report and review of the literature. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2003 Aug;127(8):1031-3.
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