Age distribution of histologic types of breast carcinoma.

The large number of cases in the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) program of the US National Cancer Institute allowed a detailed analysis of the age distribution of the histologic types of invasive breast carcinoma. Between ages 50 and 85 years in females, the age-specific incidence rate shows little change for medullary, inflammatory and apocrine carcinomas; is about doubled for Paget's disease and for ductal, lobular, tubular and metaplastic carcinomas; and increases to 4 to 8 times the menopausal level for mucinous, papillary and signet-ring-cell carcinomas. The peri-menopausal break on the age-incidence curve is most marked for carcinomas of predominantly lobular origin and virtually absent for carcinomas of predominantly ductal origin. In males, the age distribution of papillary carcinoma is similar to that of all types combined, whereas that of mucinous carcinoma is skewed towards older ages, as in females.