Pigmented Carcinoma of the Breast: An Ultrastructural Study

A pigmented skin lesion on a breast removed for carcinoma resembled melanoma by routine light microscopy, but correlation with immunohistochemistry and electron microscopy established that carcinoma cells within the upper dermis were intermingled with a proliferation of non-neoplastic melanocytic cells. Ultrastructurally, the tumor cells possessed desmosomes and intracytoplasmic lumina and mature melanosomes were present in their cytoplasm. The melanocytic cells were identified as melanocytes or melanophages, and it was concluded that the tumor in the skin was a passively pigmented carcinoma and not a melanoma or metaplastic breast carcinoma.