[Intramammary spread of breast cancer]

At the conclusion of this study based on a careful histological analysis of 454 mastectomy specimens carried out at the Institut Gustave-Roussy between 1966 and 1971 it appears that 39 per cent of tumours which are neither central nor deep to the nipple have microscopic foci outside the main focus of tumour of which 24 per cent are at the level of the single nipple. The importance of these extensions is bound up with the size and histological type of the adenocarcinoma: pure intraduct and infiltrating lobular forms are accompanied frequently by microscopic intramammary foci at a distance (89% and 72%) the opposite of findings in the case of well differentiated and medullary forms. On the other hand no connection between the Scarff and Bloom grading is apparent except where the nipple only is involved. Finally there is a strong relationship between intramammary dissemination and regional lymph node metastases.