[Clinico-pathology of lobular breast cancer]

997 operations were performed because of malignant breast lesions at the National Institute of Oncology during a two-years period (1990-1991). Histologically 94 tumours proved to be invasive lobular cancer. Comparable data were available for 89 patients; a questionnaire was used for data collection. Analysing these cases, the authors discuss the clinicopathology of lobular cancer and current practice in its treatment. The mean age of the patients was 57.1 years, which in accordance with the literature. No synchronous contralateral tumour was observed in the studied patient group. 4.9% of the cases proved to be multifocal, what is considerably less than that reported in the literature. It is a frequent matter of debate in many papers whether mastectomy should be indicated if the multicentricity of the tumour is only suspected. The features of the studied group may also emphasise this question, and further investigation is needed for moderating the surgical radicality. The rate of large tumours and the mean tumour diameter was lower than suggested by the literature. The rate of positive axillary lymph nodes was higher than in reports of other centres. The authors underline the necessity of axillary block-dissection even in case of operations with decreased radicality. Beside lymph node metastases, invasive lobular cancer produces haematogenous metastases with a higher probabilty than other breast cancers. This observation is supported by our study, too.