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Sonographic Morphology of Infiltrating Breast Carcinoma

Relationship With the Shape of the Hyaluronan Extracellular Matrix

Unité de Sénologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Henri Mondor, Créteil, France.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Philippe Vignal, MD, 33 rue Nicolo, 75116 Paris, France.

Objective. To compare the shape of the sonographic image of invasive breast cancer with the shape of the corresponding histopathologic section stained for components of the extracellular matrix, hyaluronan, and collagen. Methods. We studied 22 cases of breast carcinoma. Among them, 13 were visible on both sonography and mammography, whereas 9 were visible only on sonography. We compared the sonographic images with the histologic sections of the same carcinomas after staining with alcian blue for hyaluronan and Masson trichrome for collagen. Results. We have shown that the shape of the sonographic image of breast cancer is similar to the shape of its hyaluronan extracellular matrix. Conclusions. This finding explains why breast sonography is so sensitive for detection of invasive carcinoma and why some invasive cancers are not visible on mammography.

Key Words: breast sonography • mammography • breast cancer • extracellular matrix • hyaluronan • collagen