A comparison of the clinical outcomes of patients with invasive lobular carcinoma and invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast according to molecular subtype in a Korean population

BACKGROUND: To investigate the clinicopathological characteristics and the survival outcomes of invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) patients compared to invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) patients according to their molecular subtype. METHODS: We compared the clinicopathological characteristics, breast cancer-specific survival (BCSS) and overall survival (OS) between patients with IDC (n = 14,547) and ILC (n = 528). RESULTS: The ILC presented with a larger tumor size, more advanced cancer stage, increased rate of hormonal receptor positivity, human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2) negativity and mastectomy than the IDC. The ILC patients more frequently presented with the luminal A subtype, whereas the IDC patients more frequently presented with the luminal B, HER2-overexpression, or triple negative subtype. The BCSS and OS were not significantly different between the IDC and ILC for each molecular subtype. CONCLUSIONS: Similar to IDC patients, molecular subtype should be considered when determining the prognosis and treatment regimen for ILC patients.