Comparison of survival outcomes in medullary carcinoma and invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast

Aim: To compare clinicopathological characteristics and prognoses of medullary carcinoma (MC) and invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) of the breast. Patients & methods: We screened patients from the SEER database. Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox proportional hazards models were used to investigate influence on survival. Propensity score matching analysis was performed to reduce possible bias. Results: Compared with IDC, MC tended to be younger patients, poor differentiation, negative estrogen receptor and progesterone receptor and chemotherapy. Better overall survival and disease-specific survival were observed in MC patients than in IDC patients. It shared several prognostic factors. Worse disease-specific survival was observed in IDC patients than in MC patients (HR: 1.590; 95% CI: 1.475-1.714; p < 0.001). Conclusion: The clinical features and outcomes had evident differences between MC and IDC patients. These findings will provide more information for the prognosis of MC and IDC.