Malignancy-associated changes in breast tissue detected by image cytometry

In several tissues, nuclear differences have been described in normal-appea ring cells from patients with invasive carcinomas compared to cases without invasive carcinoma, a phenomenon known as malignancy-associated changes (M ACs). The aim of this study was to determine the presence of malignancy-ass ociated changes in breast tissue. Image cytometry was performed on Feulgen stained tissue sections of patient s with usual ductal hyperplasia with (n = 30) or without (n = 41) adjacent invasive breast carcinoma. Nuclear features of normal-appearing cells as we ll as of usual ductal hyperplastic cells were separately compared between t he two groups. Many features of normal-appearing epithelial cells were significantly diffe rent between cases with and without invasive cancer. Significant difference s were also found by measuring ductal hyperplastic nuclei instead of normal -appearing nuclei. Cases with or without cancer could be distinguished with a classification accuracy of 80% by discriminant analysis using 2 nuclear features derived from ductal hyperplastic cells. In conclusion, image cytometry on breast tissue sections shows that maligna ncy-associated changes can be found in normal as well as in usual ductal hy perplastic breast cells. This could be clinically relevant for the detectio n of occult breast cancer, for the prediction of risk in these lesions, and to monitor the effect of chemopreventive agents.