Paget's disease of the breast

Twenty-nine histologically verified cases of Paget's disease of the breast treated at the Hadassah University Hospital in the years 1949-1972 were followed up and analyzed. Dividing this material into two groups according to the presence or absence of a palpable breast tumor revealed significant difference in behavior and survival. Patients with a breast mass (34%) had a 50% axillary lymph node involvement and behaved as with any other ordinary breast cancer, with a 5-year survival rate of 40% and a 10-year survival rate of 33%. Patients with no palpable breast mass (66%) had only a 10.5% lymph node involvement, the 5-year survival rate being 94% and the 10-year survival rate being 91%. Delay in diagnosis seems to play no significant factor in survival rates and outcome. We believe radical mastectomy to be the treatment of choice in all cases of Paget's disease of the breast.