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Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) of the breast constitutes about 10% of all diagnosed breast cancers and, despite surgical removal, it may recur, either as DCIS or invasive breast cancer. Nuclear grade and growth pattern according to Andersen et al as well as surgical margins are factors that have been used to predict local recurrence, but ideally a set of tumour-specific factors should be identified and used as prognostic markers. Many cell cycle regulatory gene products have been shown to be involved in the formation of tumours and are either oncogenes or suppressor genes and involved in key processes in the transformation. We therefore characterised the cell cycle regulators cyclin E, cyclin D1, p27 and p16 in a material of DCIS cases arranged in a tissue microarray. With a manual tissue arrayer, 52% of the initial 177 DCIS samples were successfully targeted allowing immunohistochemical analyses of all four proteins in 92 cases of DCIS. As also observed in invasive breast cancer, there was a trend indicating that DCIS cases with high cyclin D1 were cyclin E low and oestrogen receptor-positive, whereas cyclin E high DCIS cases were cyclin D1 low and oestrogen receptor-negative. For the 64 patients that did not receive postoperative radiotherapy, there were 16 local recurrences (eight DCIS and eight invasive breast cancer) during a mean follow-up time of 63 months. Cyclin E, p27 or p16 were not associated with local recurrence, but interestingly cyclin D1 was significantly and inversely associated with local recurrence, both using univariate and multivariate analyses. In summary, using a tissue array approach we have shown that cyclin D1, besides growth pattern, is a prognostic marker for local recurrence in DCIS.

All cases of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) diagnosed from 1987 to 1991 in the Southern Health Care Region of Sweden, and operated upon with breast conserving treatment (BCT) with (n=66) or without (n=121) postoperative radiation (RT) were clinically followed, morphologically re-evaluated and analysed for cell biological factors (immunohistochemical assays or DNA flow cytometry). Median age at diagnosis was 58 years (range 29--83 years) and median follow-up was 62 months. Oestrogen (ER)- and progesterone receptor (PR)-negativity, c-erbB-2 overexpression, low bcl-2 expression, p53 accumulation, DNA non-diploidy and high Ki67, were strongly associated with high grade DCIS, and comedo-type necrosis. In contrast, significant associations to growth pattern (not diffuse versus diffuse) were seen only for c-erbB-2 and PgR. There was also a strong relationship between the cell biological factors, and a summary cell biological index based on principal component analysis was introduced (CBI-7). In the group that had not received postoperative RT, 31 ipsilateral local recurrences occurred (13 invasive, 18 DCIS). Ipsilateral recurrence-free interval (IL-RFI) was in univariate analyses significantly, or almost significantly, shorter for patients showing p53 accumulation, high Ki67 or low bcl-2, compared with patients with normal p53, low Ki67 and high bcl-2. The prognostic importance of the remaining cell biological factors was less pronounced. On the other hand, the index CBI-7, was a strong predictor for recurrence.

METHOD AND RESULTS: A standardized histopathological protocol has been designed, in which different histological characteristics of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) are reported: nuclear grade (ng), growth pattern according to Andersen et al., necrosis, size of the lesion, resection margins and focality. Using this protocol a re-evaluation of a population-based consecutive series of 306 cases of DCIS has been done as well as a thorough clinical follow-up. After a median follow-up of 63 months, 13% have developed ipsilateral local recurrences, invasive and/or in situ. Ipsilateral local recurrence-free survival (IL-RFS) was significantly better for patients operated with mastectomy (ME) or breast conserving therapy (BCT) with radiotherapy (RT) than for patients operated with BCT without RT (5-year IL-RFS 96% vs 94% vs 79%, P

Fifteen patients with aggressive fibromatosis are presented. The patients ranged in age from one to 64 years, an average of 26 years, and the median time of follow-up study after treatment was ten years (a range of 2.5 to 22.0). Within this period, 60 per cent (nine of 15) of the tumors recurred. In a survey of the literature, when simple excision was compared with wide extirpation, the latter was found significantly superior (p less than 0.01) in terms of limiting a recurrence of the tumor. The results of a pathoanatomic study found that the number of mast cells and the size of the primary tumor could not prognosticate the clinical course. It was concluded that aggressive fibromatosis should be evaluated and treated like a low malignant soft tissue tumor.