Breast
Invasive breast carcinoma of no special type and variants
Osteoclastic giant cells
Author: Monika Roychowdhury, M.D.
Last author update: 1 October 2012
Last staff update: 16 December 2021
Copyright: 2002-2023, PathologyOutlines.com, Inc.
PubMed Search: Carcinoma with osteoclastic giant cells
Table of Contents
Definition / general | Case reports | Gross description | Microscopic (histologic) description | Microscopic (histologic) images | Cytology description | Positive stains | Negative stains | Electron microscopy description | Additional referencesCite this page: Roychowdhury M. Osteoclastic giant cells. PathologyOutlines.com website. https://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/breastmalignantductalNOSosteoclastic.html. Accessed April 2nd, 2023.
Definition / general
- Part of WHO classification
- Osteoclastic giant cells are present in stroma
- Presence of giant cells does not alter prognosis
Case reports
- 44 year old and 83 year old women (Diagn Pathol 2010;23:55)
- 46 year old woman (Radiographics 2002;22:691)
- 51 year old woman with pleomorphic carcinoma and prominent osteoclastic giant cells (Pathol Int 2009;59:91)
- Cases with neuroendocrine carcinoma (Pathologica 2008;100:176)
Gross description
- Often brown due to vascular stroma with hemosiderin
Microscopic (histologic) description
- Giant cells are associated with vascular stroma with extravasated red blood cells and hemosiderin, also chronic inflammatory cells and fibroblasts
- Giant cells have variable size and variable numbers of nuclei
- Similar histologic features in nodal metastases and recurrences (Arch Pathol Lab Med 1986;110:636)
- Carcinoma component may be any type
Microscopic (histologic) images
Images hosted on other servers:
Invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast with osteoclast-like giant cells
Whole mount
Tubular growth, vascular stroma and hemorrhage
Giant cells in stroma and intraductal spaces
Various images
Differentiated well cribriform carcinoma
Osteoclast like giant cells in close contact to tumor cells
Cytology description
- Abundant giant cells and mononucleated stromal cells associated with carcinoma cells (Diagn Cytopathol 2005;33:246)
Positive stains
- Osteoclastic giant cells: CD68; also acid phosphatase, lysosome, nonspecific esterase; also MMP9, TRAP, cathepsin K
Electron microscopy description
- Osteoclasts are histiocytes
Additional references
