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Tubular carcinoma is a rare, slow-growing type of breast cancer made of small, well-formed tubes, usually found small on a screening mammogram. Its outlook is excellent, better even than other grade 1 breast cancers, and it is treated with surgery, radiotherapy where the breast is kept, and hormone therapy.
The WHO classification defines tubular carcinoma by well-formed open tubules with a single layer of low-grade cells making up over 90 percent of the tumour (Tan 2020). In the Nottingham series of 2,608 carcinomas, the 102 tubular carcinomas, compared with 212 grade 1 ductal carcinomas, were more often detected by screening, smaller, and less often showed lymphovascular invasion; they had longer disease-free and breast cancer-specific survival, and no patient developed distant metastasis or died of the disease without an intervening recurrence of a different histological type (Rakha 2010). In an earlier series of 44 patients, nodes were involved in 4 of 32 examined (13 percent), tumours under 15 mm had no nodal involvement, ductal carcinoma in situ accompanied 52 percent, second breast cancers developed in 16 percent and overall mortality was 2 percent (Breast Journal 2003).
How it differs from its parent: it is the special type with the best prognosis, hormone-receptor positive and HER2-negative (luminal A), and its main risk is a second, different breast cancer rather than relapse of the tubular tumour (Rakha 2010).
How common: 3.9 percent of the Nottingham series (Rakha 2010); no population figure was found in the sources read.
Treatment: as HR-positive breast cancer, generally the minimum the parent page allows: breast-conserving surgery with radiotherapy (local recurrence 1 of 20 without radiotherapy against 0 of 13 with it in the 2003 series), sentinel node biopsy, and endocrine therapy; chemotherapy is rarely indicated.
Averages across everyone diagnosed, often years ago. Your stage, subtype, age, fitness and the treatment you receive matter more than the average, and the numbers are improving quickly.
Most cancers start in the ducts and drain first to the axillary nodes, which is why the armpit is checked and a sentinel node is sampled.
Same organ: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), Breast cancer (all types), HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer, HER2-positive breast cancer, Male breast cancer, Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), High-risk early HR-positive breast cancer, HR-positive metastatic breast cancer after CDK4/6 inhibitors, HER2-low and HER2-ultralow metastatic breast cancer, Early HER2-positive breast cancer, HER2-positive breast cancer with brain metastases, Early triple-negative breast cancer, Metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, Basal-like 1 triple-negative breast cancer (BL1), Basal-like 2 triple-negative breast cancer (BL2), Mesenchymal triple-negative breast cancer (M), Mesenchymal stem-like triple-negative breast cancer (MSL), Luminal androgen receptor triple-negative breast cancer (LAR), Immunomodulatory triple-negative breast cancer (IM), Metaplastic breast carcinoma, Carcinoma with medullary pattern (medullary breast cancer), Adenoid cystic carcinoma of the breast, Apocrine carcinoma of the breast, Secretory carcinoma of the breast, BRCA-associated triple-negative breast cancer, Inflammatory breast cancer, Paget disease of the nipple, Phyllodes tumour of the breast, Invasive lobular carcinoma of the breast, Invasive breast carcinoma of no special type (invasive ductal carcinoma), Mucinous carcinoma of the breast, Papillary carcinomas of the breast (encapsulated, solid and invasive papillary), Invasive cribriform carcinoma of the breast, Invasive breast carcinoma with medullary pattern (medullary carcinoma), Invasive micropapillary carcinoma of the breast, Neuroendocrine neoplasms of the breast, Lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS)
Treated as HR-positive breast cancer with the least treatment the parent page allows: surgery, radiotherapy after breast conservation, endocrine therapy; chemotherapy rarely.
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Query for this cancer: (TITLE:"Tubular carcinoma of the breast" OR ABSTRACT:"Tubular carcinoma of the breast" OR TITLE:"Tubular carcinoma" OR ABSTRACT:"Tubular carcinoma" OR TITLE:"Tubular breast cancer" OR ABSTRACT:"Tubular breast cancer" OR TITLE:"Pure tubular carcinoma" OR ABSTRACT:"Pure tubular carcinoma") AND (treatment OR therapy OR trial OR survival OR diagnosis). Results are unfiltered search hits about Tubular carcinoma of the breast, not a curated reading list.
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A swollen painful calf, or sudden breathlessness with chest pain; the tamoxifen boxed warning covers pulmonary embolism and stroke.
Possible QT prolongation. Check ECG and electrolytes; review other QT-prolonging drugs.
Blood clots in the leg veins or lungs. Cancer makes blood clot more easily and some treatments (IMiDs, anti-VEGF drugs, hormone therapy, central lines, surgery) add risk; clots are the second commonest cause of death in cancer patients after the cancer itself.
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