Type of Architecture, Presence of Punctate Necrosis, and Extent of Involvement in Atypical Ductal Hyperplasia Can Predict the Diagnosis of Breast Carcinoma on Excision: A Clinicopathologic Study of 143 Cases

The literature shows a wide range in the frequencies of finding breast carcinoma in the excised specimens following a biopsy diagnosis of atypical ductal hyperplasia (ADH), likely due to a poor diagnostic reproducibility among different pathologists as well as an inherent heterogeneity in ADH. We evaluated whether histologic subtyping of ADH would help predict the risk of breast carcinoma. Our study consisted of 143 cases of ADH diagnosed by core needle biopsy and followed by excision. Of these, 54 cases (37.8%) showed carcinoma in the excised specimens (47 cases of ductal carcinoma in situ alone, 3 cases of invasive ductal carcinoma alone, and 4 cases of mixed invasive ductal carcinoma and ductal carcinoma in situ). We arbitrarily divided ADH into two subtypes: type A was considered when one or more ducts were completely replaced by low-grade ductal carcinoma in situ type cells but the lesion was