Collagenous spherulosis, or simple spherulosis, is a benign finding in
breast
The breast is one of two prominences located on the upper ventral region of a primate's torso. Both females and males develop breasts from the same embryological tissues.
In females, it serves as the mammary gland, which produces and sec ...
pathology
Pathology is the study of the causes and effects of disease or injury. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in ...
. It is almost always an incidental finding, though it is occasionally associated with
calcification
Calcification is the accumulation of calcium salts in a body tissue. It normally occurs in the formation of bone, but calcium can be deposited abnormally in soft tissue,Miller, J. D. Cardiovascular calcification: Orbicular origins. ''Nature Ma ...
s, which may lead to a
biopsy
A biopsy is a medical test commonly performed by a surgeon, interventional radiologist, or an interventional cardiologist. The process involves extraction of sample cells or tissues for examination to determine the presence or extent of a dise ...
.
Significance
It is important to correctly identify, as it can be confused with
atypical ductal hyperplasia, cribriform
ductal carcinoma in situ
Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), also known as intraductal carcinoma, is a pre-cancerous or non-invasive cancerous lesion of the breast. DCIS is classified as Stage 0. It rarely produces symptoms or a breast lump one can feel, typically being d ...
(DCIS), and
adenoid cystic carcinoma
Adenoid cystic carcinoma is a rare type of cancer that can exist in many different body sites. This tumor most often occurs in the salivary glands, but it can also be found in many anatomic sites, including the breast, lacrimal gland, lung, brain ...
.
Histomorphologic features
Collagenous spherulosis is characterized by a tubular/cribriform architecture with intratubular eosinophilic material that classically is arranged like the spokes of a wheel ("radial spikes"). There is usually no
mitotic
In cell biology, mitosis () is a part of the cell cycle in which replicated chromosomes are separated into two new nuclei. Cell division by mitosis gives rise to genetically identical cells in which the total number of chromosomes is maintai ...
activity, and two cells populations (
epithelial
Epithelium or epithelial tissue is one of the four basic types of animal tissue, along with connective tissue, muscle tissue and nervous tissue. It is a thin, continuous, protective layer of compactly packed cells with a little intercell ...
&
myoepithelial) are present, like in benign
breast glands.
The lesions are typically small (less than 50 spherules per lesion, less than 100 micrometers in size) and may be multifocal.
Image: Collagenous spherulosis - intermed mag.jpg , Intermed. mag.
Image: Collagenous spherulosis - high mag.jpg , High mag.
See also
*
Adenomyoepithelioma
*
Misdiagnosis
A medical error is a preventable adverse effect of care ("iatrogenesis"), whether or not it is evident or harmful to the patient. This might include an inaccurate or incomplete diagnosis or treatment of a disease, injury, syndrome, behavior, i ...
References
External links
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Histomorphologic criteria for collagenous spherulosis (Stanford School of Medicine)
Breast neoplasia