ORIGINAL ARTICLE Is there an association between invasive lobular carcinoma of the breast and a family history of gastric cancer? Bar Chikman 1 • Tima Davidson 2 • Hasan Kais 1 • Igor Jeroukhimov 1 • Ari Leshno 3 • Judith Sandbank 4 • Ariel Halevy 1 • Ron Lavy 1 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015 Abstract CDH1 gene mutations have been found to be associated with diffuse type gastric cancer and invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) of the breast. To the best of our knowledge, this is the only study relating a family history of gastric cancer to ILC of the breast. We conducted a retrospective study comparing the family history of malignancies in patients with invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) of the breast and ILC treated in our Medical Center. The comparison was evaluated in both types of breast cancer groups, dividing the patients into two age groups, \ 50 and ‡50 years. One thousand one hundred and sixty- seven patients with IDC and ILC entered the study. A family history of malignancies was reported in 21.6 % of patients with IDC as opposed to 37.8 % of patients with ILC (P \ 0.001). A history of gastric cancer was reported in 7.2 % in the ILC group as compared to 2.3 % in the IDC group, P \ 0.008. A family history of breast cancer was more common in the ILC group as opposed to the IDC group, 18 versus 8.1 % respectively, P = 0.002 and per- sisted in both age groups. We conclude that a family history of malignancies in first degree relatives is more common in patients with ILC than IDC and that there is a significant association between a family history of gastric cancer and ILC. Keywords Invasive lobular carcinoma Á Invasive carcinoma of no special type Á Gastric cancer Á Family history Introduction CDH1 gene mutations may cause E-cadherin dysfunction and have been found to be associated with the diffuse-type gastric cancer and invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) of the breast [1]. The expression of E-cadherin may be a useful immunohistochemical marker that helps to distinguish between ILC and invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) of the breast [2]. The association of the diffuse type of gastric cancer and ILC in families with E-cadherin germline mutation is well proven [1, 3–10]. It is important to note the increasing incidence of breast cancer recorded in families with hereditary gastric cancer, not only in cases with CDH1 truncating mutations, but also without this kind of mutation [4]. The incidence of ILC has increased steadily over the last decades [11, 12]. Ten to 15 % of all breast cancer patients are diagnosed with ILC [11, 12]. As the biological features of ILC differ from those of IDC [13–15], the predisposing factors may also be different. For example, it has been shown that long term exposure to hormones [hormonal replacement therapy (HRT), early age at menarche, late age at menopause, late age at first birth] is associated mainly with a more prominently increased incidence of ILC compared to IDC [11, 16]. & Ariel Halevy fredricag@asaf.health.gov.il 1 Division of Surgery, Assaf Harofeh Medical Center, Affiliated to the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, 70300 Zerifin, Israel 2 Department of Diagnostic Imaging, The Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Affiliated to the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Hashomer, Israel 3 The Integrated Cancer Prevention Center, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Affiliated to the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel 4 Institute of Pathology, Assaf Harofeh Medical Center, Affiliated to the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, 70300 Zerifin, Israel 123 Familial Cancer DOI 10.1007/s10689-015-9833-9