Jin Kyung An, et al. in >50% of the cell population. Neuroendocrine carcino- mas of the breast represent 2 to 5% of breast carcinomas. In 2003, the World Health Organization classification of tu- mors included three histologic subtypes of neuroendo- crine tumors: solid neuroendocrine carcinoma; small cell carcinoma; and large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma. A small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma is morphologically indistinguishable from its counterpart in the lung on the bases of histologic and immunohistochemical features [4]. Therefore, exclusion of an extramammary primary site and/or demonstration of an in situ component within the breast should be confirmed to diagnose the primary small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of the breast [5]. Primary small cell neuroendocrine carcinomas of the breast as also known as oat cell carcinomas, high-grade neuroendocrine carcinomas, or small cell undifferentiated carcinomas. The histologic characteristics of primary small cell neu- roendocrine carcinomas are scant cytoplasm, fine gran- ular chromatin, inconspicuous nucleoli, and a high mitotic rate. Necrosis is common and may be associated with oth- er conventional breast carcinoma patterns. There is no consistent pattern of neuroendocrine marker expression; however, most tumors are reactive for neuron-specific enolase, cytokeratin, and one or more neruoendocrine dif- ferentiation indicators (Grimelius stain, synaptophysin, Leu 7, serotonin, bombesin, and chromogranin A or B) [6]. Estrogen and progesterone receptors are expressed in >50% of small cell carcinomas [4]. The histogenesis of pri- mary small cell neuroendocrine carcinomas is still unclear. It has been suggested that a small cell neuroendocrine car- cinoma is a variant of a metaplastic carcinoma arising from usual lobular or ductal carcinoma [4] or multipotential stem cells capable of divergent differentiation [7]. Breast small cell carcinomas should be differentiated from small cell carcinomas from another site, lobular car- cinomas, or lymphomas; immunohistochemistry may help to distinguish such lesions. Breast small cell carcino- mas are positive for cytokeratin 7 and negative for cytoker- atin 20, whereas pulmonary small cell carcinomas are neg- ative for both markers [4]. E-cadherin is negative in lobu- lar carcinomas, but 100% positive in small cell carcinomas [8]. Lymphomas are immunoreactive for leukocyte com- mon antigen, CD20, or CD3. In the current case, light mi- 118 croscopy showed infiltrating small discohesive cells in the hyalinized stroma. The tumor cells had small nuclei and scanty cytoplasm admixed with reactive small lympho- cytes. The tumor cells were initially thought to be lym- phoid cells, but immunohistochemical stains revealed positive for epithelial membrane antigen and cytokeratin, but negative for leukocyte common antigen, CD3, CD20. The tumor cells were positive for neuron-specific enolase and E-cadherin. Thus, we excluded lymphomas and lobu- lar carcinomas from the differential diagnosis. Perineural invasion and tumor necrosis were present. Estrogen and progesterone receptors were negative, Her-2 was three positive, and Ki-67 was elevated (70%), suggesting ag- gressive tumor characteristics. The serum tumor marker CA15-3 was within normal limit in our case and was not helpful to differentiate the primary lesion. Kinoshita et al. [7] reported elevated levels of serum carcinoembryonic antigen and NCC-ST-439 and Kitakata et al. [9] reported that the levels of the serum tu- mor markers carcinoembryonic antigen, CA15-3, NCC- ST-439, and squamous cell carcinoma antigen were within normal limits. More data seem to be necessary to find a constant pattern of the serum tumor markers about the primary small cell carcinomas of the breast. Small cell neuroendocrine carcinomas of the breast have been reported in several cases, which is not sufficient to characterize the imaging findings of the tumor [9,10]. The radiologic findings of our case were similar to ad- vanced breast malignancy of the other histologic types. Although the pathologic findings were not confirmed, we postulated that the palpable small lesion detected in 2007 might have been an early stage of this mass. The small le- sion was located at the 1 o’clock direction near the left nip- ple in 2007 and the imaging studies obtained in 2010 showed that the mass was in the same location. In such a case, it is likely that it took 3 years for the early lesion to progress to an advanced lesion. Although the period dur- ing which malignant lesions progress is variable and de- pends on the histologic type, grade, and patient’s health, the duration of time could be a feature of progression of small cell neuroendocrine carcinomas of the breast. Small cell carcinomas have been considered as undifferentiated carcinomas and aggressive tumors, resulting in poor thesurgery.or.kr