ASPO Abstracts
Mammographic calcifications in LCIS: a role in future breast cancer risk?
Category: Early Detection & Risk Prediction
Conference Year: 2020
Abstract Body:
Purpose: To explore the role of mammographic calcifications in breast cancer risk after lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS), we evaluated
associations between calcifications, LCIS patient characteristics, and subsequent breast cancer.
Methods: This study included 49 women diagnosed with LCIS at a single institution from 2007-2014. Mammographic calcifications
present in the same breast as LCIS were classified by a radiologist using Breast Imaging and Reporting Data Systems® criteria.
Histologic features, including involvement of calcifications in LCIS lobules, were assessed by a pathologist. Patient characteristics
were abstracted from medical records. Associations between calcifications linked with increased risk for malignancy (i.e., suspicious
for malignancy: amorphous, coarse heterogeneous, fine linear/fine linear branching, and fine pleomorphic morphologies; linear and
segmental distributions) and patient and histologic characteristics were evaluated using generalized estimating equations models.
Subsequent breast cancers were ascertained from medical records and a tumor registry database.
Results: Mammographic calcifications were present in the same breast as LCIS for 88% of participants; 71% had at least one instance
of calcifications classified as suspicious for malignancy. Among patients where calcifications were involved with LCIS lobules on
histology (n=14), 86% had at least one instance of suspicious mammographic calcifications. No other histologic or patient
characteristics were associated with the presence of suspicious calcifications (all P>0.05). After a median 5.6 years of follow-up, three
of the 49 women were diagnosed with ipsilateral breast cancer; suspicious calcifications were present at the time of LCIS diagnosis in
each case (100%).
Conclusions: Mammographic calcifications were common among LCIS patients. The presence of suspicious calcifications was more
common among women who went on to develop breast cancer (100%) than among those who did not (70%), suggesting a potential
relationship between the presence of suspicious calcifications and breast cancer risk. However, the number of incident breast cancers
was small. Additional studies with a larger sample size and radiologic-pathologic correlation are needed to confirm these results.
Keywords: lobular carcinoma in situ, calcifications, mammography, breast cancer risk