[Role of mammography in women under 35 years of age]

The detection of breast cancer in women under 35 is quite an uncommon event, accounting only for 3.2-3.4% of all breast cancers. To determine the indications for mammography in women under 35, the authors correlated clinical, mammographic, and US findings with fine-needle aspiration/surgical biopsy and follow-up results in 1040 symptomatic women examined at the Center of Senology of the Institute of Radiology-University of Perugia, Italy, from 1984 to June 1990. Of 1040 women, 482 (41.6%) had normal findings; benign disease was diagnosed in 558 (53.7%) cases, and malignant disease in 49 (4.7%). Mammography was very useful to diagnose malignancy in palpable breast lesions, as well as to suggest the need for biopsy, to detect metachronous cancers and to define lesion sizes. In inflammatory process--e.g., mastitis and abscesses--both mammography and US were capable of evaluating the real extent of the process, as well as its remission after therapy. Galactography had a specific role in the evaluation of the mammary duct and demonstrated intraductal pathologic conditions. In the authors' experience, mammography never showed occult breast cancers in women with no palpable breast lesions or hematic nipple discharge.