Invasive breast carcinoma is the most common malignant tumour in women. The pathologist’s diagnosis is of pivotal importance for local therapy as well as for establishing the prognostic and predictive factors of such a malignancy. Moreover, new cell biological and molecular findings have led to a better understanding of the numerous variants of breast carcinoma.
The first part of our review is an attempt to explain the development of breast carcinomas against the background of cell biological and molecular principles and to place this malignancy into the context of benign proliferative breast disease and in situ neoplasia. The second part gives an account of some important subtypes of breast carcinoma, and the third part is dedicated to the currently accepted prognostic and predictive factors, the majority of which have to be assessed by the pathologist within the framework of his or her diagnostics.