Intracystic papillary carcinoma of the breast. After mastectomy, radiotherapy or excisional biopsy alone.

Intracystic papillary carcinoma of the breast (IPC) was distinguished from the more common papillary intraductal carcinoma (DCIS) and infiltrating duct carcinoma with a papillary pattern. IPC was defined as a solitary tumor with a pattern recognizable as carcinoma which is confined to a dilated duct. A series of 41 such cases was collected from three institutions. Twenty-nine patients underwent mastectomy; 11 of them had axillary dissections. None of these patients had metastatic disease in the axillary lymph nodes or recurrence in the follow-up period which averaged five years. Eleven patients did not have mastectomy or radiotherapy. Eight of these patients (followed for an average of ten years) had no recurrence. The only patients who developed invasive carcinoma were those with DCIS as well as IPC in the excisional biopsy. The data suggest that IPC is much more likely to be cured by local treatment than is IPC accompanied by DCIS.