Table of Contents
Definition / general | Radiology images | Prognostic factors | Case reports | Gross images | Microscopic (histologic) description | Microscopic (histologic) images | Cytology description | Positive stains | Negative stains | Electron microscopy description | Differential diagnosis | Additional referencesCite this page: Roychowdhury M. Glycogen rich. PathologyOutlines.com website. https://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/breastmalignantglycogenrich.html. Accessed September 27th, 2023.
Definition / general
- Breast carcinoma in which at least 90% of the neoplastic cells have abundant clear cytoplasm due to glycogen
- First described in 1981 (Cancer 1981;48:2003)
- Rare, 1% - 3% of breast carcinomas
- May be a variant of apocrine carcinoma
Prognostic factors
- Prognosis similar to invasive ductal carcinoma (Am J Surg Pathol 1995;19:904)
Case reports
- 33 year old woman whose tumor had neuroendocrine features (Pathologica 2001;93:676)
- 45 year old woman with solid papillary tumor (J Clin Pathol 2003;56:552)
- 55 year old woman (Case Rep Oncol 2011;4:452)
- 59 year old woman (World J Surg Oncol 2008;6:44)
- 61 year old woman (Arch Med Lab Pathol 2003;127:1629)
- Intraductal lipid rich carcinoma with component of glycogen rich carcinoma (J Breast Cancer 2012;15:135)
Gross images
Microscopic (histologic) description
- Solid or solid / papillary patterns of large clear cells with distinct cell borders containing glycogen in 90% or more cells
- Often associated with intraductal component of varied type
- Often has apocrine features
- Cells have clear to granular cytoplasm
- May have scant intracellular mucin (Histopathology 1987;11:857)
- No cytoplasmic vacuoles
Microscopic (histologic) images
Cytology description
- Hypercellular with tumor cells in loosely cohesive syncytial groups and some single cells
- Most tumor cells have abundant, finely granular eosinophilic cytoplasm or foamy to clear cytoplasm with well defined cytoplasmic membranes and moderate / marked nuclear pleomorphism with central round/oval nuclei containing prominent nucleoli (Acta Cytol 2008;52:65)
- PAS staining may be helpful (J Med Invest 2002;49:193)
Positive stains
- PAS diastase sensitive (glycogen)
Negative stains
- CK20, lipid stains (done on fresh / frozen tissue)
Electron microscopy description
- Non membrane bound glycogen and empty glycogen lakes
- Tight junctions between tumor cells, immature desmosomes, occasional short microvilli (Am J Surg Pathol 1986;10:553)
Differential diagnosis
- Apocrine carcinoma
- Clear cell "sugar" tumor: positive for melanocytic markers (Am J Surg Pathol 2002;26:670)
- Lipid rich carcinoma: positive for lipid stains, negative for glycogen
- Myoepithelial lesions
- Secretory carcinoma: younger patients, low grade histology
Additional references