Paget disease of the breast, in most cases, represents intraepidermal spread of ductal carcinoma in situ. Molecular subtypes of invasive carcinoma of the breast have prognostic and therapeutic significance and show characteristic distribution. Little is known about the distribution of molecular subtypes in Paget disease of the breast.
To examine the distribution of molecular subtypes in Paget disease of the breast and to compare them to concurrent invasive carcinoma of the breast, if present.
We examined 48 cases of Paget disease of the breast with immunohistochemistry and antibodies against estrogen and progesterone receptors, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), and Ki-67, as well as HER2 chromogenic in situ hybridization, to classify the cases into molecular subtypes. Then, we compared the results to the molecular subtypes of associated invasive carcinoma of the breast, if present.
The HER2 subtype was the most common found in Paget disease of the breast, followed by the luminal B subtype and 2 cases of the triple-negative subtype. The associated invasive carcinoma cases were most often of the luminal B subtype, followed by the HER2 subtype and the triple-negative subtype. The molecular subtype of Paget disease and invasive carcinoma was congruent in most of the cases.
Molecular subtypes of invasive carcinoma of the breast can already be detected in Paget disease. The distribution of molecular subtypes of Paget disease and of Paget disease-associated invasive carcinoma differs from invasive carcinoma without associated Paget disease, with the HER2 subtype overrepresented in Paget disease and associated invasive carcinoma and the luminal and triple-negative subtypes underrepresented.