Clinicopathological characteristics of squamous cell carcinoma of breast

Objective To study the clinicopathological and immunohistochemical features of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of breast.Methods Three cases with breast SCC were studied by analyzing their clinical data,histomorphology and immunophenotype.The related literature was reviewed.Results The patients were all females.Their ages ranged from 37 to 50 years,with 43 years as the medium.The tumor diameter was 2-9 cm,with 4.3 cm as the medium.Metastasis of axillary lymph node was found in one case,accounting for 33％ of the total.Two cases had painless lumps in their left breasts.One case had a lump with local inflammation,pain and ulcer in her left breast.Histopathological examination showed the polygonal and spindle-shaped cells with eosinophilic cytoplasm were found in cancer nest,as well as the prominent intercellular bridges and keratin pearls were found to be rich in three cases.Interstitial fibrosis with hyalinization and lymphocytic infiltrate around the tumor was also found.Immunohistochemistry showed ER,PR,HER-2,CK18 and SMA were negative while CK,CK14,CK5/6,p63,S-100 and vimentin were positive.Conclusions SCC is a rare subtype of breast carcinoma with distinct histopathological and morphological features.SCC is a typical basal-like breast carcinoma,and the majority of breast SCC appear a basal-like immunophenotype with poor prognosis. Key words: Breast;  Squamous cell carcinoma;  Immunophenotype