What are phyllodes tumors?
By Jonas Wilson, Ing. Med.
Phyllodes tumors (PTs) are rare fibroepithelial tumors of the breast that tend to display a wide range of biological behaviors. They account for no more than 1% of all breast tumors and are called “phyllodes,” which means “leaf-like” in Greek language, because of the “leaf-like” pattern they grow in. However, they were called by over 60 different names before being given the official terminology of PTs by the World Health Organization.
The diverse biological behaviors of PTs range from fairly benign-like to aggressive-like with distant metastases. Tumors with the latter characteristics may degenerate on a histological basis to sarcomatous lesions, which are devoid of epithelial tissue. PTs were previously known as cystosarcoma phyllodes, but this terminology evolved, because PTs are not true sarcomas by either biological or cellular characteristics.
Epidemiology
PTs are predominantly found in women between the fourth and sixth decades of life. There are some cases seen in adolescent girls, but these are rare. Peak incidence occurs around the age of 45, just before most women reach menopause. There is data that suggests that the tumor grade increases with the average age at the time of diagnosis. Some studies report a
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These tumors tend to be up to 5cm on average, but may be several times this size as well. Studies report that up to 90% of these tumors are benign, with around 10 to 15% of them being malignant. While benign tumors do not metastasize to distant sites, they tend to grow very aggressively and may recur locally. Their malignant counterparts behave like sarcomas and metastasize via the blood. The lungs are the most common site of metastasis. Other areas of spread include the heart, skeleton and liver. Most patients with metastasis cannot be cured and do no survive longer than 3 years after they have been initially
(p133-134, text). * Define metastasis. * Development of a secondary tumor in a location distant from the primary tumor. * Accomplished via lymphatic channels and circulation. * Trace the pathways for the hematologic and lymphatic spread of metastatic cancer cells. Evidence of disseminate disease presence in lymph that drain the tumor area, tumor cells lodge first in the initial lymph node that receives drainage from the tumor site, once in this lymph node cells may die b/c of the lack of a proper environment, remain dormant for unknown reasons, or grow in a discernible mass, If they survive and grow cancer cells, may spread from more distant lymph nodes to the thoracic duct, and the gain access to the blood vasculature, cancer cells may gain access to the blood vasculature from the initial node and more distant lymph nodes by way of tumor-associated blood vessels that may infiltrate the tumor mass. Sentinel
This type of cancer is more common in women. It is also more likely to develop in young smokers. Adenocarcinoma usually grows at a slower rate, and doctors are likely to detect it before it spreads to other organs. The cancerous tissues usually form tumors on the outer parts of the lung. If a physician detects adenocarcinoma tissues in the early stages, the patient is likely to respond to conventional treatments.
the American Cancer Society there are benign tumors, which are rare and often develop in
There are many different diseases that terrorize the human race every day. Of all of these sicknesses, one of the most devastating is breast cancer. Breast cancer touches all types of people all over the world each day. It is actually the second most common cancer amongst women in the United States. One in every eight women in the United States has some form of breast cancer and currently, the death rates are higher than any other cancer with the exception of lung cancer. Cancer is defined by the Merriam-Webster Online dictionary as “a malignant tumor of potentially unlimited growth that expands locally by invasion and systemically by metastasis.” Therefore, breast cancer is a disease of
One thing that we never want to hear a doctor say to us is that we have a tumor. Tumors are classified into two different classes, malignant or benign. Malignant are cancerous and are life threatening, while benign are not life threatening. Malignant tumors may spread to other parts of the body, while benign tumors stay in the place where they started. When the cells in a tumor are normal, it is benign. When the cells are abnormal and grow uncontrollably, they are cancerous cells. Looking at tumor cells through a microscope, cancer cells appear to have abnormal
Borderline PT is diagnosed when the tumour does not possess all the features found in a MPT. While the chance of recurrence increases with borderline tumours they generally do not metastasis. Adequate and extensive sampling is recommended as higher grade tumours may be present focally; PT can contain ductal carcinoma in situ, lobular neoplasia of invasive forms of the disease. (Lakhani SR et al,
Salivary gland tumors are a morphologically diverse group of neoplasms, which may present considerable diagnostic and management challenges for the pathologist and surgeon. Salivary gland tumors are rare with an overall incidence in the western world of about 2.5 to 3.0 per 100,000 per year. About 80% of all lesions are benign; hence salivary malignancies are particularly rare, comprising less than 0.5% of all malignancies and about 5% of cancers in the head and neck. (1)
Harmful tumors require quick regulation and treatment, as threatening developments may grow quickly and metastasize (spread all through the body) at a disturbing rate. Metastases are auxiliary tumors which can show up at any area all through the body, which is an immediate impact of disease spreading by means of blood and lymph hubs.
Woman at any age can be diagnosed with invasive lobular carcinoma but is most commonly found in woman ages forty- five through fifty- five. There are an abundant amount of factors that cause the cancer to appear in woman. One factor is the history of your family. If your grandmother, mother, or sister(s) have lobular carcinoma or abnormal breast theres a chance you may be at risk to have the cancer also. Another cause is taking hormonal replacement medication known as estrogen. Experts believe that estrogen
They grow at a slow rate and do not spread into nearby tissue or other parts of the body. Malignant tumors are cancerous and can be extremely dangerous to the body if not treated properly. It is possible for Malignant tumors to spread to other parts of the body, this process is called metastasis and if this occurs it could lead to different types of cancers such as bone cancer, rectal, lung, brain, etc.... There are many different types of breast cancer. Oncologist and other types of professional doctors identify these cancers by the cells that cause them whether they are malignant or benign cells.
these tumors [5]. Due to the fact that complete resection is often difficult or morbid to
The first similarity is that just like malignant tumors, benign tumors can also be quite large. A common mistake patients often make is confuse benign tumors with malignant tumors because of the size. Although malignant tumors are usually larger than benign tumors, that alone does not make the difference. In fact, a benign tumors weighing over a hundred pounds have been removed. An example of a large benign tumor is a 32-year-old man from Vietnam who survived a 12-hour operation in which a massive 198-pound benign tumor from his right leg was removed at France-Vietnam Hospital (FV) on January 5, 2012.2 The second similarity is that both malignant and benign tumors recur locally, to be more specific, the location where the recurrence of the tumor most likely happens. To elaborate further, both benign and malignant tumors have the ability to reappear near or in the same area where the previous tumor was located. For instance, recurrent breast tumors are tumors that have come back in the same breast or chest wall after the treatment for a period of time when the tumor couldn't be detected.3 The third and final similarity is the danger both malignant and benign tumors pose to the health of the patient. Similar
This ability of malign cancer to make their way across basement membrane and into blood vessels is what makes cancer so fatal and impossible to be cure by surgery alone. The result of metastasis and invasion in normal tissue by cancer cells are often seen as one of the distinctive features of malignancy (Ruoslahti 1996). Even though the ability of invasion and metastasis are one of the hallmarks for cancer, these abilities are not unique to cancer cells as it can also occur during the early development stage of the embryo, in healthy organisms and in many noncancerous diseases (Mareel & Leroy 2003). It does not matter whenever the organism has developed benign or malign cancer, all cancer cells have the ability to disturb the normal cell cycle and threaten the survival of the organism.
Breast cancer is cancerous growth of cells in the breast which can be often felt as lump. It becomes dangerous when the cancerous cells becomes malignant and starts invading other tissues of the body. However, this can be prevented by early detection. The incidence of breast cancer is mostly with females although there are few reports of men suffering from the disease. In most cases, the cells with the ducts of milk glands are often associated and few can arise from other cells of the breast and can be termed as sarcomas as well as lymphomas that are different from breast cancer which is an adenocarcinoma (Al-Hajj, Wicha, Benito-Hernandez, Morrison, & Clarke, 2003). Common type of breast cancer includes ductal carcinoma in situ which is considered non-invasive and not life threatening. The invasive ductal carcinoma is associated with the milk duct and can invade nearby tissues of the breast as well as other body parts through the blood stream. Another form of invasive lobular carcinoma starts from the milk glands and can metastasize. Other less common types includes inflammatory breast cancer, Paget disease, phyllodes tumour and angiosarcoma.
It is called malignant because not only can it invade into adjacent organs but unfortunately a cancer can spread to other tissues and that can be life threatening. Cancer can actually occur anywhere in the body because there are cells everywhere in the body. In women, one of the most common cancers of course is breast cancer, in men prostate cancer and in men and women, lung cancer and colon cancer are common cancers. It is important to understand that the cancer that occurs in one individual is very different from the cancer that occurs in another. Everyone is different; a lung tumor in one person will be different from a lung tumor in another person. Once a diagnosis of cancer is made, the next obvious question is what do you do? There are several things that are really relevant, for example, the stage of the cancer which is information about where is the cancer? You say it’s a particular kind of cancer? How much cancer is present? Has is spread? Is it in lymph nodes? Has it spread to other organs of the body? Cancer affects everyone in one way or another. Whether it is a family member, loved one or ourselves, cancer has touched our lives.