Paucity of fibronectin in invasive lobular carcinoma of breast

Fifty-four cases of invasive carcinoma of breast were immunostained for fibronectin and laminin. They included 36 cases of invasive ductal carcinoma and 18 cases of invasive lobular carcinoma. Although there was some heterogeneity within tumours, it was found that whilst the majority of ductal carcinomas (31/36) had abundant fibronectin at cell/stroma boundaries or diffusely throughout stroma, a substantial proportion of lobular carcinomas (12/18) had very little (P less than 0.001). This difference could not be related to differences in laminin immunoreactivity, which was most commonly scanty or absent in both tumour types. It is postulated that the characteristic infiltration pattern of lobular carcinoma may be attributed in part to paucity of stromal fibronectin.