Residual mucin and response after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in breast cancer

Abstract

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) is the standard of care for patients with breast cancer with inoperable disease or smaller tumours who might benefit from a conservative surgery after downstaging of their disease. Nevertheless, evidence shows that preoperative and postoperative chemotherapy are equivalent in terms of long-term survival. Response and histological changes after NAC have been widely studied in invasive ductal carcinoma not otherwise specified, but there is a paucity of characterisation of patterns of response to chemotherapy in less frequent histological types. We report extensive residual mucin deposits after chemotherapy in a woman with locally advanced breast cancer and a prominent mucinous component at diagnosis. Interestingly, residual mucin was co-located with the initial tumour, in the breast as well as in the axillary lymph nodes. The distribution of mucin may be a valuable marker of the extent of mucinous carcinomas prior to NAC.