Chondrolipoma

Breast - nonmalignant
Benign tumors / changes
Chondrolipoma of breast

Author: Monika Roychowdhury, M.D. (see Authors page)

Revised: 1 October 2015, last major update October 2015

Copyright: (c) 2002-2015, PathologyOutlines.com, Inc.

PubMed Search: Chondrolipoma [title] breast

Table of Contents

Cite this page: Chondrolipoma. PathologyOutlines.com website. http://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/breastchondrolipoma.html. Accessed July 14th, 2017.

Definition / general

Rare circumscribed lesion of mature fibrous stroma, white adipose tissue, breast ducts and mature cartilage

Terminology

Also called chondroid lipoma (but these tumors are formed by cartilage associated with white and brown fat)

Epidemiology

Very rare

Pathophysiology

Considered as cartilaginous metaplasia in lipomas of large size and long standing duration (Goldblum: Enzinger and Weiss's Soft Tissue Tumors, 6th Edition, 2013)

Clinical features

Clinically resembles fibroadenoma but may show calcification on mammography mimicking carcinoma

Generally seen above the age of 50 years

Case reports

55 year old woman with left breast lump (J Sci Soc 2012;39:147)

58 year old woman with progressively increasing right breast mass (Nig J Surg Res 2001;3:185)

66 year old woman with benign chondrolipomatous tumor (Arch Pathol Lab Med 1977;101:149)

Chondrolipoma of the breast (Arch Pathol Lab Med 1989;113:369)

Treatment

Excision; does not recur

Gross description

Well demarcated, islands of cartilage project from cut surface, resembles fibroadenoma (Breast 2006;15:425)

Gross images

Hand mass

Shoulder mass

Microscopic (histologic) description

Mature fibrous stroma, adipose tissue, breast ducts, mature cartilage

Microscopic (histologic) images

Hand mass:

Soft tissue (not breast) - AFIP:

Well circumscribed tumor composed of clusters of small to medium cells with vacuolated cytoplasm; mature fat cells are present

Cytology description

Mixture of benign adipose tissue with lipoblast-like cells and chondroblast-like cells with a fibrochondroid matrix

Molecular / cytogenetics description

Seemingly balanced t(11;16)(q13;p12-13) reported in two cases (Am J Surg Pathol 2000;24:1035)

Also three way arrangement with chromosomes 1, 2 and 5 (at other sites, Am J Surg Pathol 1999;23:1300)

Molecular / cytogenetics images

t(11;16)(q13;p12-13), 3-way arrangement
with chromosomes 1, 2 and 5

Differential diagnosis

Liposarcoma: infiltrative; lipoblasts (may also be found in chondrolipoma) and atypia are present; different cytogenetics