Abstract

Breast cancer is not only the most common malignancy but also the one showing the worst mortality rate in Brazilian women. Multicentricity occurs in about 13% of the cases and is more common in women with a positive family history and in those with lobular carcinoma. In spite of the fact that breast palpation is easy and simple for diagnosing, only about 60% of mammography-positive tumours are palpable. Anatomopathological analysis is indispensable for making a diagnosis of the primary tumour and the metastases, and for classification and staging. The breast adenocarcinomas are classified as in situ and invasives. These two are then subdivided as ductal and lobular, each one of them having its own subtypes, due to histopathological characteristics which influence the clinical course. Among the ductal carcinoma in situ, comedocarcinomas can reach big sizes and become palpable. These tumours are of high nuclear grade and can be invasive early. Classic invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC), the most common malignancy of the breast, shows the worst prognostic rate, mainly those with higher histological grade. The IDC is followed in frequency by invasive lobular carcinoma, which prognosis is a little better than IDC.

Key words: breast cancer; staging; anatomopathological classification; histopathology