Papillary Neoplasm of Breast-Changing Trends in Diagnosis and Management

Abstract

Papillary neoplasm of breast comprises of seven separate heterogeneous entities ranging from benign, atypical and malignancy including non-invasive and invasive carcinoma. Papillary carcinoma (PC) is seen more commonly in older postmenopausal women with favorable prognosis. PC breast typically presents with bloody nipple discharge and an abnormal mass with radiologic features of intraductal mass. Encapsulated PC and solid PC is to be treated as in situ carcinoma, but distinction of invasive PC from non invasive carcinoma is critical both at microscopic and molecular level. So, surgical excision should be the choice of definitive diagnostic technique in papillary neoplasm instead of core needle biopsy. Furthermore, treatment guidelines for invasive PC also have been framed, but incidence of recurrence and death attributable to various subtypes of carcinoma remained same. So, this is important topic to be addressed to understand the need for further management and outcome of the disease.