"In
our article we aimed to identify the imaging characteristics of
triple receptor–negative (TRN) breast cancers—on mammography,
sonography, and MRI—and to determine whether MRI has a role in
confirming equivocal clinical or conventional imaging (mammography
and ultrasound) findings. We found that despite their large size
at clinical presentation, TRN cancers were frequently occult or
benign-appearing on conventional imaging. On MRI, TRN breast
carcinomas showed rim enhancement, central contrast-enhanced
septations, necrosis and washout kinetics, all of which have a
high positive predictive value for malignancy. 11% of the 23%
multicentric foci were exclusively identified by MRI in our
series. The clinical implications of these findings are twofold:
first, MRI provides a reliable baseline characterization of
these cancers to facilitate monitoring of response to
neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Second, MRI may have a role in
the detection of additional triple receptor–negative cancers
in the ipsilateral breast that are not easily identified with
mammography or ultrasound, as well as screening the
contralateral breast for synchronous occult malignancy" (Comment
on: Dogan
BE et al.: "Multimodality imaging of triple receptor-negative tumors
with mammography, ultrasound, and MRI", AJR
Am J Roentgenol. 2010: 194(4):1160-6)
Egypt, 1600 BC: The Edwin Smith Papyrus describes the earliest known cases of
tumors or ulcers of the breast, that were treated by
cauterization with
a tool called the "fire drill". The writing says about
this condition: "There is no treatment"
Hippocrates (460–370 B.C.) used the termcarcinoma
to describe non-ulcer forming and ulcer-forming tumors. In Greek,
these words refer to a crab, because the finger-like spreading
projections from a tumor called to mind the shape of a crab
