Breast carcinoma with neuroendocrine features: a brief review.

Breast carcinoma with neuroendocrine features (BCNF) is a rare entity that is defined by a neuroendocrine (NE) architecture and cytomorphology combined with an immunohistochemical expression of chromogranin A or B and/or synaptophysin. According to the 2012 World Health Organization (WHO) classification, they are classified into three subtypes: invasive breast carcinoma with NE differentiation, well-differentiated NE tumor, and poorly differentiated small cell carcinoma. BCNF are typically positive for the estrogen and progesterone receptor and negative for Her-2/ neu protein. The clinical features are not sufficiently specific to distinguish BCNF from other breast carcinomas. BCNF can mimic benign lesions on mammography, so the additional use of ultrasound or MRI can improve detection. Other imaging tests are useful to detect or rule out metastatic disease. Although standardized treatment guidelines have not yet been established, the mainstay of treatment for early BCNFs is surgery. Adjuvant treatment decisions should be individualized and should take into consideration the prognostic and predictive factors, clinical evidence and the patient’s overall health treatment preferences. Therapeutic options in the metastatic setting include surgery, chemotherapy, peptide receptor radionuclide therapy and molecular-targeted agents. These options are not mutually exclusive and are interchangeable. 1 Department of Radiotherapy and Medical Oncology, Clinical Hospital Center “Sestre milosrdnice”, Zagreb, Croatia 2 “Ljudevit Jurak” Pathology Department, Clinical Hospital Center “Sestre milosrdnice“, Pathology Department, Medical Faculty Zagreb, University of Zagreb, Croatia 3 Caris Life Sciences, Phoenix, AZ, United States of America 4 Division of Anatomic and Molecular Pathology, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO, United States of America 5 Department of Pathology, University of Sarajevo Clinical Center, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina 6 School of Medicine, University of Sarajevo, Sarajevo, Bosnia Petra Jurčić1, Božo Krušlin2, Zoran Gatalica3, Souzan Sanati4, Semir Vranić5,6 Corresponding author: Semir Vranić, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Pathology, Department of Pathology, University of Sarajevo Clinical Center and School of Medicine, Bolnička 25, BA-71000 Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, E-mail: semir.vranic@gmail. com DOI: 10.21040/eom/2016.2.2.6. Received: May 25th 2016 Accepted: June 10th 2016 Published: June 15th 2016 Copyright: © Copyright by Association for Endocrine Oncology and Metabolism. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/ flicenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is