Signet ring cell carcinoma of the breast: report of 17 cases

carcinoma (SRCC) of the breast.Methods The clinical and pathologic data of 17 SRCC of the breast were analyzed retrospectively.Results Breast SRCC accounted for 2-4.5％ of all breast cancer patients.I0 (58.8％) patients suffered from lymph node metastasis at admission,the positive rates of estrogen receptor(ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) were 71.4％ (10/14) and 64.9％ (9/14) respectively.With a follow-up time varying from 8 months to 11 years recurrence or metastasis were found in 7 patients,another 3 patients were found having distant metastasis at admission.Bone metastasis (8 patients) was most common.Treatments of breast SRCC were analogous to breast cancer at the same stage,sixteen cases were treated with surgery and 14 cases with chemotherapy.The 3' and 5' year disease-free survival rates were 50.3％ (7/17) and 23.0％ (5/17) respectively.With a mean follow-up time of 57 months,the mortality was41.2％ (7/17).Conclusions SRCC of the breast is highly invasive,with high rate of positive receptors and recurrence,and poor patients' survival. Key words: Breast neoplasms; Carcinoma, signet ring cell; Neoplasm metastasis