# Invasive cribriform carcinoma of the breast

Source: https://onco.cc/cancers/invasive-cribriform-carcinoma-breast/  
OnCo record `invasive-cribriform-carcinoma-breast` (Cancer). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Invasive cribriform carcinoma is a rare, low-grade type of breast cancer whose cells grow in sieve-like nests, closely related to tubular carcinoma. In its pure form it has an excellent outlook, with no deaths from the cancer in the defining series, and it is treated like other hormone-driven breast cancer with the least treatment possible.

## Summary

The WHO classification defines invasive cribriform carcinoma by invasive nests with sieve-like spaces making up over 90 percent of the tumour (classical form) or over 50 percent with a tubular component (Tan 2020). In the Edinburgh review of 1,003 carcinomas, 51 were predominantly cribriform; of the 35 classical cases none had died of the carcinoma 10 to 21 years later and 30 remained alive, while the 16 mixed cases with less differentiated areas did worse but still better than invasive carcinoma in general (Page 1983). In the George Washington series pure and predominant cribriform carcinomas metastasised to axillary nodes frequently but almost never to more than three nodes, were oestrogen-receptor positive in 100 percent and progesterone-receptor positive in 69 percent, and had five-year survival of 100 percent for pure or at least 50 percent cribriform tumours (Venable 1990).

How it differs from its parent: with tubular carcinoma it forms the low-grade luminal special types with near-normal survival; it must be distinguished from cribriform ductal carcinoma in situ, which often accompanies it, and from adenoid cystic carcinoma.

How common: about 5 percent showed a predominant pattern in the 1983 series, and pure cases are fewer (Page 1983); no modern population figure was found in the sources read.

Treatment: as HR-positive breast cancer following the parent page, with surgery, radiotherapy after breast conservation and endocrine therapy, and rarely chemotherapy; there is no trial in the type.

## Fields

- Kind: Cancer
- Last checked: 2026-09-24
- Also known as: Invasive cribriform carcinoma; Infiltrating cribriform carcinoma; Cribriform breast cancer
- Tags: subtype-page; wave4; breast
- Group: breast
- Burden: 51 of 1,003 invasive breast carcinomas (5 percent) in the Edinburgh series showed a predominantly cribriform pattern, 35 of them classical (Page 1983); the pure form is rarer than that share suggests.
- Subtypes: Classical invasive cribriform carcinoma (over 90 percent cribriform; luminal A); Mixed invasive cribriform carcinoma (with tubular or no special type areas); Cribriform carcinoma with cribriform ductal carcinoma in situ
- Biomarkers: Percentage of cribriform pattern; Oestrogen receptor (100 percent positive) and progesterone receptor; Node number (rarely more than three)

## Sections of this record

The page is a hub with ten sections in reading order; large sections have their own page. The same plan as JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/cancers/invasive-cribriform-carcinoma-breast/sections.json

- Overview (on the hub): The TL;DR, the family this cancer belongs to, the organ, who gets it and what the state of the art is. https://onco.cc/cancers/invasive-cribriform-carcinoma-breast/#overview
- What it is (on the hub): Anatomy, the subtypes and how they differ, how it is staged, and where advanced disease spreads. https://onco.cc/cancers/invasive-cribriform-carcinoma-breast/#what-it-is [3 subtypes]
- Finding it (on the hub): How it shows itself, how it is confirmed, what screening exists, and the biomarkers clinicians test for. https://onco.cc/cancers/invasive-cribriform-carcinoma-breast/#finding-it [3 biomarkers]
- Treating it (on the hub): The standard of care by setting, the medicines, surgery and radiotherapy named in it, and the regimens behind them. https://onco.cc/cancers/invasive-cribriform-carcinoma-breast/#treating-it [1 setting, 1 decision with options]
- Evidence (on the hub): Trials recruiting now, the landmark trials, the key papers and what they mean, the latest literature, and the milestones year by year. https://onco.cc/cancers/invasive-cribriform-carcinoma-breast/#evidence
- The science (on the hub): The molecular landscape: the targets and how often each appears, the pathways, the mechanics stages and the preclinical models. https://onco.cc/cancers/invasive-cribriform-carcinoma-breast/#science [1 target]
- Where you are (own page): Cases by country, the UK and NHS pathway and other country lenses, and the expert centres with trials on record. https://onco.cc/cancers/invasive-cribriform-carcinoma-breast/where-you-are/
- Living with it (on the hub): The decisions you may face, the aids that walk through them, the warnings on record, the first sixty days and the questions to ask. https://onco.cc/cancers/invasive-cribriform-carcinoma-breast/#living-with-it [8 questions, 3 red cards]
- What is coming (own page): Everything in development, the open problems and what is being done about them, the roadmaps, and what changed on this record. https://onco.cc/cancers/invasive-cribriform-carcinoma-breast/coming/ [1 medicine]
- Data (own page): Every connected record, the notes, the JSON, Markdown and RDF twins, and where the record came from and when it was checked. https://onco.cc/cancers/invasive-cribriform-carcinoma-breast/data/ [5 connected records]

## Standard of care

- All stages: Treated as HR-positive breast cancer with the least treatment the parent page allows. ([HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/breast-hr-positive/), [Endocrine therapy (SERMs, AIs, SERDs)](https://onco.cc/technologies/endocrine-therapy/), [Tamoxifen](https://onco.cc/drugs/tamoxifen/))

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breast_cancer_classification
- Tan 2020, Histopathology: the 2019 WHO classification of tumours of the breast: https://doi.org/10.1111/his.14091
- Page 1983, Histopathology: invasive cribriform carcinoma of the breast, 51 of 1,003 carcinomas: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2559.1983.tb02265.x
- Venable 1990, Human Pathology: infiltrating cribriform carcinoma of the breast, a distinctive entity: https://doi.org/10.1016/0046-8177(90)90235-w

## Connected records

- cancers: [Adenoid cystic carcinoma of the breast](https://onco.cc/cancers/adenoid-cystic-carcinoma-breast/), [Breast cancer (all types)](https://onco.cc/cancers/breast-cancer/), [Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS)](https://onco.cc/cancers/ductal-carcinoma-in-situ/), [HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/breast-hr-positive/), [Tubular carcinoma of the breast](https://onco.cc/cancers/tubular-carcinoma-breast/)
- technologies: [Endocrine therapy (SERMs, AIs, SERDs)](https://onco.cc/technologies/endocrine-therapy/)
- drugs: [Tamoxifen](https://onco.cc/drugs/tamoxifen/)

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JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/invasive-cribriform-carcinoma-breast.json