There is scant fibrous stroma. Moderate to large numbers of lymphocytes and plasma cells surround the sheets of tumor cells. Mucinous or Colloid carcinoma Mucinous carcinoma tends to occur in older women. It is sharply circumscribed, lacks fibrous stroma, is soft and gelatinous and has a glistening cut surface. The mucinous tumor is composed of small islands, occasionally forming glands, and isolated tumor cells floating in pools of extracellular mucin.
Tubular carcinoma is composed of small glands or tubules that take variable shapes.
The distribution of the glands is haphazard and a single layer of cells lines each gland. Cribriform carcinoma grows as rounded and angular masses of uniform tumor cells embedded in variable amounts of fibrous stroma with sharply outlined, round or oval glandular spaces distributed throughout the tumor aggregates giving a sieve-like growth pattern. Paget's disease of the nipple Paget's disease of the nipple presents with an eczematous area of the nipple, which may be subtle or form an obviously eroded, weeping lesion. The underlying process is population of the epidermis of the nipple with neoplastic cells, which are identical to a DCIS in the underlying ducts or, less commonly, with an invasive ductal carcinoma deeper within the breast. In advanced lesions, the process may extend to involve the areola and adjacent skin.