[Breast cancer: age and tumor diameter. Partial results of a long-term study since 1966]

From 1963 to 1985 approximately 2,800 patients underwent primary treatment for breast cancer at Erlangen University Gynecological Clinic. In the same period just under 60,000 women underwent thorough clinical, mammographic, and in some cases sonographic examination. In the last 20 years the age of patients with breast cancer has shifted toward the younger age groups. Peak incidence is found among 40 to 49-year-old and 60 to 64-year-old women. The data indicate that women should undergo screening for breast cancer from the age of 35 on, and in high-risk cases from age 25. The majority of the carcinomas are 1-2 cm in diameter. This has not changed in the last 10 years. Only in every tenth patient is the tumor less than 1 cm in diameter.