Prostatic metaplasia and pilar differentiation in gender-affirming mastectomy specimens

Abstract

With the increasing practice of gender-affirming mastectomy as a therapeutic procedure in the setting of gender dysphoria, there has come a profusion of literature on the pathologic findings within these specimens. Findings reported in over 1500 patients have not included either prostatic metaplasia or pilar metaplasia of breast epithelium. We encountered both of these findings in the course of routine surgical pathology practice and therefore aimed to analyze these index cases together with a retrospective cohort to determine the prevalence, anatomic distribution, pathologic features, and associated clinical findings of prostatic metaplasia and pilar metaplasia in the setting of gender-affirming mastectomy. In addition to the 2 index cases, 20 additional archival gender-affirming mastectomy specimens were studied. Before mastectomies, all but 1 patient received testosterone cypionate, 6/22 patients received norethindrone, and 21/22 practiced breast binding. Prostatic metaplasia, characterized by glandular proliferation along the basal layer of epithelium in breast ducts, and in one case, within lobules, was seen in 18/22 specimens; 4/22 showed pilar metaplasia, consisting of hair shafts located within breast ducts, associated with squamoid metaplasia resembling hair matriceal differentiation. By immunohistochemistry, prostatic metaplasia was positive for PSA in 16/20 cases and positive for NKX3.1 in 15/20 cases. Forty-three reduction mammoplasty control cases showed no pilar metaplasia and no definite prostatic metaplasia, with no PSA and NKX3.1 staining observed. We demonstrate that prostatic metaplasia and pilar metaplasia are strikingly common findings in specimens from female-assigned-at-birth transgender patients undergoing gender-affirming mastectomy. Awareness of these novel entities in the breast is important, to distinguish them from other breast epithelial proliferations and to facilitate accrual of follow-up data for better understanding their natural history.