Infiltrating lobular carcinoma of the breast detected by screening

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Abstract
Background: This study was a retrospective analysis of all patients with invasive lobular breast cancer who presented to the University Hospital Nijmegen between 1980 and 1990, with follow-up to December 1992. A comparison was made between the invasive lobular carcinomas detected by breast cancer screening and those detected outside the screening project. Methods: The total number of patients with breast cancer during this interval was 937, of whom 136 (14·5 per cent) had pure infiltrating lobular carcinoma (ILC). Breast cancer screening identified a total of 158 patients with infiltrating breast carcinoma of whom 20 (12·7 per cent) had ILC. Outside the screening programme a total of 116 patients with ILC were diagnosed during the same interval. Results: The 2- and 5- and 10-year disease-free survival rate in the screen-detected group was 100, 100 and 89 per cent respectively. For the group outside the screening programme this was 88·4, 74·3 and 72·5 per cent respectively (P = 0·04). No patient in the screen-detected group died from breast cancer during follow-up, whereas the 2- and 5- and 10-year breast cancer survival rate for the group detected outside the screening programme was 96·5, 89·1 and 70·6 per cent respectively (P = 0·06). Conclusion: Between 10 and 15 per cent of patients with invasive lobular breast cancer can be detected by breast screening. These patients have a favourable outcome compared with those who have ILC detected outside the screening programme.