Introduction: Papillary carcinoma of the breast is very rare, constituting 1–2% of breast cancers with favourable prognosis. However cytohistopathologic features of these have not been studied in great detail. Aim and Objective: To analyze the clinical presentation, cytomorphological aspects, histopathological features and immuno histochemical study of papillary carcinoma. Material and Methods: The present study included 06 retrospective cases of papillary carcinoma of breast in a regional cancer centre in north eastern part of India during a period of 5 years. FNAC was carried out on all of them. Cytomorphological features were studied and correlated with clinico-histopathological features. In all cases Immunostaining for ER, PR and HER2neu was done. Results: This was a retrospective study of 06 cases of papillary carcinoma out of total 1250 cases of breast cancer
over a period of 5 years. On cytological examination, 2 cases were reported as papillary neoplasm suspicious of malignancy. Rest 4 cases reported as papillary carcinoma. Histopathological examination was done in all 6 cases and reported as intracystic papillary carcinoma in 2 cases and invasive carcinoma in 4 cases. 5 cases had strong staining for estrogen and progesterone receptors. One case was triple negative. Only one case was positive for HER2neu. Conclusion: Papillary carcinoma of the breast is very rare. The utility of FNAC is limited by the overlapping morphological features of benign and malignant neoplasm. Thus for papillary lesions diagnosed using FNAC, excision is required to facilitate accurate diagnosis.

Keywords: Intracystic; Invasive papillary carcinoma breast.